US rejects Beijing's claims in South China Sea; Warns to stop its ‘campaign of bullying’

NewsBharati    14-Jul-2020 16:14:04 PM
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Washington DC, July 14: The United States dismissed China's claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea and warned China against its ‘campaign of bullying’ and unlawful offshore activities in the South China Sea.
 
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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement on behalf of US administration on MAritime claims in the South China Sea, saying that the Chinese government has no legal grounds to unilaterally impose its will on the region.
 
"The United States champions a free and open Indo-Pacific. Today we are strengthening U.S. policy in a vital, contentious part of that region the South China Sea China has offered no coherent legal basis for its ambitions in the South China Sea and years has been using intimidation against other South Asian coastal states," Pompeo said.
 
 
"We are making clear: 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 in a statement. The move comes less than a week after the US mounted rare two-carrier freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) in the South China Sea.
 
Further, he added that the world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire. In response, the Chinese Embassy in the US described the announcement as "completely unjustified" and accused the US of inflaming the situation.
 
"In the South China Sea, we seek to preserve peace and stability, uphold freedom of the seas in a manner consistent with international law, maintain the unimpeded flow of commerce, and oppose any attempt to use coercion or force to settle disputes. We share these deep and abiding interests with our many allies and partners who have long endorsed a rules-based international order," he said in the statement.
 
China claims 90% of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea, but Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam also lay claim to parts of it, through which about $3 trillion of trade passes each year. Beijing has built bases atop atolls in the region but says its intentions are peaceful.
 
"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. We stand with the international community in defense of freedom of the seas and respect for sovereignty and reject any push to impose “might makes right” in the South China Sea or the wider region," the statement said.
 
China has been relentless in illegally occupying land in at least 21 countries. Even though the International Court of Justice has rejected its dubious claims, China continues to assert ownership of islands in the Philippines.
 
China stakes its claim to the South China Sea based on its so-called "nine-dash line" under which virtually the whole area would belong to China. In a unanimous decision on July 12, 2016, an Arbitral Tribunal constituted under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention – to which the PRC is a state party – rejected the PRC’s maritime claims as having no basis in international law. The Tribunal sided squarely with the Philippines, which brought the arbitration case, on almost all claims.
 
China claims 90% of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea, but Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam also lay claim to parts of it, through which about $3 trillion of trade passes each year. Beijing has built bases atop atolls in the region but says its intentions are peaceful.
 
Previously, US policy had been to insist that maritime disputes between China and its smaller neighbors be resolved peacefully through UN-backed arbitration. Meanwhile, after Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that China has never strived to build an empire in the South China Sea, and urged Washington to stop its attempts to disrupt and sabotage regional peace and stability.