US, China clash over South China Sea at high-level UNSC meeting
During a high-level meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday on maritime security, the US and China fought over Beijing’s “activities” in the South China Sea.
“In the South China Sea, we have observed significant confrontations between ships at sea and aggressive measures to promote unlawful maritime claims,” US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said of Beijing’s expanding claims to regions of the South China Sea. The US has been vocal about its worries about tactics taken to coerce and bully other countries that are legally entangled with the US.
Dai Bing, China’s UN deputy envoy, replied by accusing the US of being “the largest danger to peace and stability in the South China Sea” and describing its “noise” before the UN Security Council as “totally political driven.”
“The situation in the South China Sea is largely steady, and Beijing is attempting to negotiate an agreement. “A sea-specific code of conduct with the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,” he added, calling the decision of an international arbitration court in favor of the Philippines “null and without any binding force.”
“The United States has no credibility in maritime problems since it is not a party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which outlines states’ rights and duties in their use of the world’s seas,” he said.
