On Monday, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared a formal rejection of “most” of China’s claims in the South China Sea.
Pompeo stated the rejection as “strengthening U.S. policy”.
The US diplomat stated that “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.”
“The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire. 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 added.
Although China claims most of the South China Sea as its sovereign territory, many islands and waters in the South China Sea are also claimed territories by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Taiwan.
Over the past several years, China has built up military fortifications and disrupted commercial activity like fishing or mineral exploration by other countries on the islands it claims it’s own.
In response to Pompeo’s statement, late Monday, the Chinese Embassy in Washington called the accusations “completely unjustified.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington said the US “distorts the facts and international law … , exaggerates the situation in the region and attempts to sow discord between China and other littoral countries,” and further accused the US of “stirring up tension and inciting confrontation” in a region where it is not directly involved in the disputes.
A senior fellow for Southeast Asia and director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Gregory Poling, commented on the US statement saying, “It lets the US very clearly call out China’s activities as illegal, not just destabilizing or unhelpful, but to say this is illegal,” he said. “That helps partners like Vietnam and the Philippines, and it’s going to put pressure on other countries — the Europeans, for instance — to get off the fence and say something themselves.”