Biden backs Trump rejection of China’s South China Sea claim
July 12, 2021: The Biden administration on Sunday upheld a Trump-era rejection of nearly all of China’s significant maritime claims in the South China Sea. The administration also warned China that any attack on the Philippines in the flashpoint region would draw a U.S. response under a mutual defense treaty.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s strong message came in a statement issued before the fifth anniversary of the International Tribunal’s decision in favor of the Philippines this week against China;s maritime claims around the Spratly islands, China has rejected the decision.
On the eve of the rulering’s fourth anniversary last year, the Trump administration backed the decision but also said it considered all Chinese maritime claims in the South China Sea to be maritime outside of China’s internationally recognized waters. Goes Sunday’s statement confirmed the position, which was put forward by Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. Using language similar to Pompeo’s, Blinken said, “There is no more maritime order greater under threat than the South China Sea. “
“The United States has ratified the July 13, 2020 policy on maritime claims in the South China Sea,” Pompeo was quoted as saying. “We have also confirmed that an armed attack on the Philippine armed forces, civilian aircraft or aircraft in the South China Sea will emphasize US mutual defense commitments.” Article 4 of the 1951 US-Philippine Defense Agreement obliges both countries to come to each other’s aid in the event of an attack.
Prior to Pompeo’s statement, US policy had insisted that maritime disputes between China and its small neighbors be resolved peacefully through US-backed mediation. This change does not apply to land-level disputes that are above the surface, which are considered “territorial” in nature. Although the United States remains neutral in territorial disputes, it has effectively sided with the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam, all of which have sought Chinese sovereignty over islands, cliffs, and maritime territories in south China sea.
China has rejected the tribunal’s decision, which it has dismissed as a “sham,” and has refused to participate in arbitration proceedings. It has continued to defy the decision with aggressive actions that have brought it into territorial spats with Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia in recent years.
China claims almost all of the South China Sea and routinely objects to any action by the U.S. military in the region. Five other governments claim all or part of the sea, through which approximately $5 trillion in goods are shipped every year.
As last year’s statement did, Sunday’s announcement came amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and China over numerous issues, including the coronavirus pandemic, human rights, Chinese policy in Hong Kong and Tibet and trade, that have sent relations plummeting.
China has sought to shore up its claims to the sea by building military bases on coral atolls, leading the U.S. to sail its warships through the region on what it calls freedom of operation missions. The United States has no claims itself to the waters but has deployed warships and aircraft for decades to patrol and promote freedom of navigation and overflight in the busy waterway.
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