BEIJING (AFP) - Top US diplomat John Kerry is to meet Chinese leaders on Saturday, with State Department officials saying he would take a tough line over Beijing's island-building in strategic but disputed waters.
The US is weighing sending warships and surveillance aircraft within 12 nautical miles - the normal territorial zone around natural land - of artificial islands that Beijing is building in the South China Sea.
Such a move could lead to standoff on the high seas between the world's top two economies in an area home to vital global shipping lanes and believed to be rich in oil and gas deposits.
Pentagon officials last week revealed that China is building artificial islands on top of coral reefs at an unprecedented pace, in a land reclamation effort dubbed a "great wall of sand" by one American commander.
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