US condemns China's 'dangerous' South China Sea activities – DW – 10/11/2024
Published 2:09 PM Oct. 11, 2024
Blinken told the ASEAN leaders that the US will "continue to support freedom of navigation" in the Indo-Pacific. The Philippines has used the summit to complain about Chinese "harassment and intimidation."
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed concern over China's "increasingly dangerous and unlawful" activities in the South China Sea during a meeting with ASEAN bloc leaders on Friday.
Blinken, in his opening speech at the US-ASEAN summit, said: "We remain concerned about China's increasingly dangerous and unlawful actions on the South and East China Seas, which have injured people, harmed vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolution of disputes."
Blinken, filling in for President Joe Biden, told the Southeast Asian leaders gathered in Laos that the United States will "continue to support freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight in the Indo-Pacific."
'More urgency in ASEAN-China negotiations needed'
Tensions are high in the disputed South China Sea, amid escalating confrontations between Chinese vessels and those from the Philippines and Vietnam.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said at the summit on Thursday that his country "continues to be subject to harassment and intimidation" by China.
He said China's actions caused the region to remain tense, adding that Beijing was violating international law.
The South China Sea, a vital global trade route, is claimed almost entirely by China, despite overlapping claims from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan.
The Philippines called for more urgency in ASEAN-China negotiations on a code of conduct to govern the South China Sea, a cause seconded by Malaysia, who takes over the rotating ASEAN chair next year.
Beijing has rejected a 2016 international arbitration ruling by an UN-affiliated court in The Hague that invalidated its broad territorial claims, while continuing to build and militarize islands under its control.