Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, 56, rejected China’s claim to military bases built on shallow shoals in the South China Sea, prompting an angry response from Beijing. China’s Communist Party rejected the July 12, 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague, Netherlands, asserting control over military bases built in shallow reefs in the Spratly Islands. While the ruling is four years old, Beijing showed no signs of negotiating sovereignty to the South China Sea that extends sovereignty to the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, all claim territorial sovereignty over the shallow reefs now built up as Chinese military bases in the South China Sea. Four years later, the U.S. put China on notice that it does not accept its sovereignty over the South China Sea archipelago. Former President Barack Obama said nothing in 2016, ceding the territory to China.
So far, none of the neighboring islands seek confrontation with China, a country with superior military strength. “We are making clear: Beijing’s claims to the offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as its campaign of bullying to control them,” said Pompeo, not accepting Chinese President Xi Jinping as supreme authority over the territories. Pompeo wants China to accept the International Court’s ruling, preserving freedom of navigation in international waters. “The Tribunal sided squarely with the Philippines, which brought the arbitration case, on almost all claims,” Pompeo said. But like Russia’s claims to parts of Georgia and Ukraine, there’s no enforcement mechanism to the Hague’s rulings. “The world would not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire,” Pompeo said, standing with its ASEAN allies in the region.
None of the U.S. allies in the region want confrontation with China over its expansionist policies in the South China Sea. Former President George W. Bush found out the hard way when China intercepted April 1, 2001 a U.S. Navy EP-E3 Aires II surveillance aircraft flying close to Hainan Island. China’s air force forced down the plane on Hainan Island and kept its crew hostage 30 days while Chinese authorities dismantled and reverse-engineered the aircraft before returning the parts to the U.S. Navy. Since then, no U.S. president has pushed China to surrender territory it claims in the South China Sea. Pompeo’s talking tough but so far 74-year-old President Donald Trump has no interest in confronting China militarily. China’s Foreign Minister Zhao Linjian called Pompeo’s remarks “groundless,” accusing Washington of sowing division in Southeast Asian nations.
Pompeo said the U.S. would support its allies in the ASEAN nations, not accept Beijing’s unilateral claim to military installations in the shallow shoals in the South China Sea. “We will support countries all across the world who recognize that China has violated their legal territorial claims as well—or maritime claims as well,” Pompeo told reporters. Pompeo remembers well when China embarrassed the U.S. in the South China Sean when it intercepted the surveillance aircraft. “We will go provide them the assistance we can, whether that’s in multilateral bodies, whether that’s in ASEAN, whether that’s through legal responses, we will use all tools we can,” Pompeo said. U.S. has sent warships into the South China Sea daring Beijing to take action in international waters. China’s Foreign Minister spokesman Zhao Linjian blamed the U.S. for provoking discord among peaceful ASEAN nations.
Lijian was the same spokesperson that said March 14 that the U.S. military planted the coronavirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 in Wuhan, China. “The U.S. is the destructor and troublemakers to peace and stability in the region,” Lijian said, insisting that no other nations objected to China’s military installation in Spratly Island chain and other shallow shoals in the South China Sea. “The U.S. Department of State issued a statement that disregards the efforts of China and ASEAN countries for peace and stability in the South China Sea, deliberately distorts the facts and international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sean [UNCLOS], exaggerates the situation in the region and attempts to sow discord between China and other littoral countries. The Accusation is entirely unjustified,” Lijian said. Linjian knows the Hague ruled against China July 12, 2016.
China can’t fathom the fact that none of ASEAN countries have asked Beijing to provide security to the South China Sea. China, in building its military installation in international water, violated the sovereignty of ASEAN countries, especially the Philippines, prompting the case filed for resolution in the Hague. Colin Koh, a research fellow at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said ASEAN would not issue a joint statement. Koh believes that there’s no mood in the ASEAN group for confrontation with China. No one wants to take sides because all ASEAN nations currently do business with China and the U.S. Pompeo’s preaching the choir when he says that the U.S. doesn’t recognize China’s sovereignty over military installations in the South China Sea. Pompeo found out that while there’s consensus over the sovereignty issue, ASEAN nations aren’t about to confront China.
