Most of China’s claims in South China Sea illegal: US
The area has potentially rich oil and gas resources and abundant fisheries
By IAR Desk
Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State announced on Monday, July 13, that China’s expansionist maritime claims across most of the South China Sea were “completely unlawful,” setting up potential military confrontations with Beijing and sanctions against companies as the United States seeks to push back Chinese activity in the region. He added that China’s yearslong “campaign of bullying to control ” offshore resources across much of the area was illegal, according to a report in the New York Times (NYT).
According to the NYT report, Mr. Pompeo’s announcement aligns U.S. policy directly with that ruling and puts Washington in a position to enforce the tribunal’s decision, even though China has rejected it. The statement may not be explicit on U.S. military aid, but it leaves open the possibility that the United States might come to the defense of nations like Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines if differences arise because of Chinese aggression keeping in mind that the United States has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines.
The NYT quoted M. Taylor Fravel, a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who studies China’s territorial disputes and its military, as saying that “The statement is a full-throated endorsement of the tribunal’s ruling,”. He added that the United States is sticking to its policy of neutrality on competing claims to legitimate land features such as the Spratly Islands.
Chinese response
Meanwhile, China and five other governments have competing claims to land features in the South China Sea. Given this, China has also come into conflict with Indonesia over Chinese activity in waters close to it, and therefore China delineates its claims to the South China Sea with what it calls “a nine-dashed line,” a boundary that encompasses an area of approximately the size of Mexico and demarcates almost the entire region.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington said in a statement that the U.S. government “exaggerates the situation in the region and attempts to sow discord between China and other littoral countries.The accusation is completely unjustified. The Chinese side is firmly opposed to it.” The statement also said that China was “committed to resolving disputes through negotiation.”
The NYT report claims that the area has potentially rich oil and gas resources and abundant fisheries, and governments often sign contracts with companies that do exploration and drilling in the region. Fishing boats and coast guard vessels from various nations have contended repeatedly in recent years across the sea.
Mr. Pompeo also mentioned that “Beijing has failed to put forth a lawful, coherent maritime claim in the South China Sea,” and so the United States was rejecting any Chinese claim to waters beyond a 12-nautical mile territorial sea derived from land features or legitimate islands.
