WASHINGTON – The Biden administration on Sunday confirmed a Trump-era rejection of almost all of China’s major maritime claims in the South China Sea. The government also warned China that any attack on the Philippines in the hotspot region would result in a US response under a mutual defense treaty.
Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken’s serious message came in a statement released earlier this week on the fifth anniversary of an international court ruling in favor of the Philippines against China’s maritime claims around the Spratly Islands and neighboring reefs and shoals. China rejects the verdict.
Ahead of the fourth anniversary of the verdict last year, the Trump administration spoke out in favor of the verdict, but also stated that it considers virtually all Chinese maritime claims in the South China Sea to be illegitimate outside of China’s internationally recognized waters. Sunday’s statement reaffirms this position, as set out by Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
« Nowhere is the rule-based maritime order more threatened than in the South China Sea, » said Blinken in a language similar to Pompeo. He accused China of continuing to « coerce and intimidate the Southeast Asian coastal states and endanger the freedom of navigation on this critical global passage ».
« The United States reaffirms its July 13, 2020 policy on maritime claims in the South China Sea, » he said, referring to Pompeo’s original statement. « We also affirm that an armed attack on Philippine forces, public ships or aircraft in the South China Sea would be based on US mutual defense obligations. »
Article IV of the US-Philippines Treaty on Mutual Defense of 1951 obliges both countries to help each other in the event of an attack.
Before Pompeo’s declaration, US policy was to insist that maritime disputes between China and its smaller neighbors be peacefully resolved through United Nations-backed arbitration. The shift did not apply to disputes over land features that are above sea level, which are considered « territorial ».
Although the US remains neutral in territorial disputes, it has effectively sided with the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, all of whom oppose Chinese claims to sovereignty over sea areas around disputed islands, reefs and shallows in the South China Sea turn.
China reacted angrily to the Trump administration’s announcement and is likely to be similarly angry with the Biden administration’s decision to maintain and strengthen it.
“We call on (China) to meet its obligations under international law, to cease its provocative behavior and to take steps to reassure the international community that it is committed to the rules-based maritime order that respects the rights of all countries, large and small « Blinken said in the statement that China had rejected the tribunal’s decision, which it dismissed as a » sham, « and refused to participate in arbitration. She continued to oppose the decision with aggressive actions that have drawn her into territorial clashes with Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia in recent years.
As in last year’s statement, the announcement came on Sunday amid heightened tensions between the US and China over numerous issues, including the coronavirus pandemic, human rights, Chinese politics in Hong Kong and Tibet, and trade that plunged relations.
China claims almost all of the South China Sea and routinely opposes any US military action in the region. Five other governments claim all or part of the sea, through which about $ 5 trillion in goods is shipped annually.
China has tried to base its claim to the sea by building military bases on coral atolls, which has led the US to sail its warships across the region in what it calls freedom of operation missions. The United States does not lay claim to the waters, but has used warships and airplanes for decades to patrol and promote freedom of navigation and overflight on the busy waterway.
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