 |
| © The Associated Press |
By Paul D. Shinkman, U.S. News & World Report
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday ramped up pressure against China over its contested territorial claims in the South China Sea, saying the U.S. would break from its prior de facto neutrality and condemning as "unlawful" Beijing's "bullying" and "intimidation."
Pompeo's surprise statement came four years and a day after a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that sided against China in a case regarding territorial disputes also claimed by its other regional U.S. allies and partners, including the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia. The United States at that time responded to the ruling by urging China to respect the decision of the court and maintained support for its partners but ultimately remained neutral on the competing claims.
"The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire," Pompeo said in the statement Monday. "America stands with our Southeast Asian allies and partners in protecting their sovereign rights to offshore resources, consistent with their rights and obligations under international law."
Pompeo's comments came shortly after the U.S. deployed two aircraft carriers to the South China Sea – a rare concentration of one of the most visible elements of the U.S. military arsenal in a move designed to reassure allies but which also prompted outrage in Beijing. The U.S. has also expressed concern that China has exploited global unrest as a result of the spread of the coronavirus to solidify its territorial ambitions.
The South China Sea has increasingly become the site of confrontations in recent years as Chinese ships clash with those of Beijing's neighbors. In June, a Chinese vessel rammed a Vietnamese fishing boat near the Paracel Islands. U.S. military officials have previously expressed concern that Beijing institutionally employs civilian or law enforcement vessels, such as those equivalent to Coast Guard cutters, in a manner more befitting a domineering military ship.
The 2016 case, filed by the Philippines, centered on a region of the South China Sea that China considers within a "Nine-Dash Line" it announced in 2009, effectively extending its sovereign borders across shoals, islands and fishing grounds claimed by adjacent countries.
Pompeo's announcement Monday rejects almost all of China's claims in the region, including those around the Scarborough Reef and Spratly Islands among others claimed by the Philippines, as well as the waters surrounding the Vanguard Bank near Malaysia, the Luconia Shoals near Malaysia and the Natuna Besar near Indonesia.
Pompeo did not say what consequences the U.S. is now willing to impose against China in the event of Beijing's continued claim on the regions.
"Beijing's claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them," Pompeo said. "Beijing uses intimidation to undermine the sovereign rights of Southeast Asian coastal states in the South China Sea, bully them out of offshore resources, assert unilateral dominion, and replace international law with 'might makes right.'"
Read more at U.S. News & World Report
