In a time of simmering geopolitical tension, the United States on Saturday urged China to stop harassing Philippine ships in the South China Sea and vowed to support the Philippines.
The United States State Department issued a statement saying, “We call upon Beijing to desist from its provocative and unsafe conduct.”
Following an incident during a Philippine coast guard patrol near the Philippines-held Second Thomas Shoal, a flashpoint for previous altercations located 105 nautical miles (195 km) off its coast, the Philippines accused China’s coast guard of “aggressive tactics” on Friday.
A small military the contingent is stationed on the Second Thomas Shoal aboard a decrepit American ship from World War Two that was purposefully grounded in 1999 to support the Philippines’ territorial claims. The Philippines claimed in February that a Chinese ship had fired a “military-grade laser” at one of its resupply ships.
With a ‘nine-dash line’ on maps that extends more than 1,500 km off its mainland and enters the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia, China asserts sovereignty over nearly the entire South China Sea. That line was rejected as having no legal foundation in a 2016 international arbitral decision.
On Friday, the Chinese foreign ministry said that the Philippine vessels had violated into Chinese territorial seas and committed purposeful provocative actions.
State Department told Washington “stands with our Philippine allies in upholding the rules-based international maritime order.”
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