WASHINGTON (AP) — China’s top general blamed the Obama administration’s new focus on Asia on Thursday for various disputes in the East and South China seas, saying “some neighboring countries” are using it as a chance to provoke problems.

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, People’s Liberation Army’s Chief of the General Staff Gen. Fang Fenghui also warned Thursday that the U.S. must be objective about tensions between China and Vietnam or risk harming relations between Washington and Beijing. He defended China’s deployment of an oil rig in the South China Sea and said Beijing has no intention of abandoning the drilling despite the violent protests it has spawned in Vietnam.

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