The United States is committed to maintaining its military presence in Asia, its top military official said in China on Sunday, adding that Washington was worried disputes in the resource-rich South China Sea could lead to serious conflict. China has been embroiled in a row with the Philippines and Vietnam in recent months over what each government sees as intrusions and illegitimate claims in the stretch of ocean spanning key shipping lanes. “The worry, among others that I have, is that the ongoing incidents could spark a miscalculation, and an outbreak that no one anticipated,” Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the start of a four-day visit to China. “We have an enduring presence here, we have an enduring responsibility. We seek to strongly support the peaceful resolution of these differences,” he told foreign reporters during a news conference. Despite unease over China's growing military capabilities and assertiveness in the disputed waters, US-China military relations have thawed in recent months and Mullen's trip to China is seen as a reciprocal visit for the one his Chinese counterpart made to Washington in May. That visit by People's Liberation Army (PLA) Chief of the General Staff Chen Bingde marked the country's highest-level military-military talks since China severed ties in early 2010, furious about $6.4 billion in US arms sale to Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province. The United States has pledged its support to the Philippines in the South China Sea, which is believed to harbour rich oil and gas reserves. But Beijing insists on handling the disputes over the region on a one-on-one basis rather than multilaterally, a strategy some critics have described as “divide and conquer”. __
