- Sunday, May 19, 2024
By: Pramod Kumar
US Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday (24) accused Beijing of coercion and intimidation to back unlawful claims in the South China Sea, her most pointed comments on China during a visit to Southeast Asia, which she said was critical to US security.
Harris’s seven-day trip to Singapore and Vietnam, only her second foray internationally, is aimed at standing up to China’s growing security and economic influence, addressing concerns about China’s claims to disputed parts of the South China Sea and showing Washington can lead the way.
In a speech in Singapore, Harris laid out the US vision for the region built on human rights and a rules-based international order and sought to solidify a US pivot towards Asia.
She said the US had put itself forward to host a 2023 meeting of the 21-member Asia-Pacific trade group APEC, which includes the US, China and Russia.
Diverting attention and resources to the region has become a centrepiece of President Joe Biden’s administration, as it turns away from old security preoccupations with the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.
The US administration has called rivalry with China “the biggest geopolitical test” of the century and Southeast Asia has seen a series of high-profile visits by top administration officials, including Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
“We know that Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate, and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea,” Harris said in her speech.
“These unlawful claims have been rejected by the 2016 arbitral tribunal decision, and Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations,” she said, referring to an international tribunal’s ruling over China’s claims in The Hague.
China rejected the ruling and has stood by its claim to most of the waters within a so-called Nine Dash Line on its maps, parts of which Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam also claim.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, in response to Harris’s comments, said the “order” that the United States wanted was one in which it could “wilfully slander, oppress, coerce and bully other countries and not have to pay any price”.
China has established military outposts on artificial islands in the waters, which are crossed by vital shipping lanes and also contain gas fields and rich fishing grounds.
The US Navy regularly conducts “freedom of navigation” operations through the disputed waters, which China objects to, saying they do not help promote peace or stability.
On board the USS Tulsa, a US combat ship at the Changi Naval base in Singapore on Monday (23), Harris told US sailors “a big part of the history of the 21st century will be written about this very region” and their work defending it was pivotal.
On Monday, Harris began her trip by meeting Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Part of her task during the trip will be convincing leaders in the region that the US commitment to Southeast Asia is firm and not a parallel to Afghanistan.
Biden has faced criticism over his handling of the withdrawal of US forces and the chaotic evacuation after the lightning takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban.
Harris opened her speech on Tuesday talking about Afghanistan and said the US was “laser-focused” on the task of “safely evacuating American citizens, international partners, Afghans who worked side by side with us, and other Afghans at risk”.
(Reuters)
