On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reaffirmed that the US rejects most of Beijing’s claims to the South China Sea. The rejection was first formalized by the Trump administration’s State Department last July.
“The United States reaffirms its July 13, 2020 policy regarding maritime claims in the South China Sea,” Blinken said. The US rejects China’s claims under the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), an international treaty that defines the rights of nations to territorial waters. The State Department also cites a 2016 international tribunal ruling made under UNCLOS that sided with the Philippines in its maritime dispute with China.
“Freedom of the seas is an enduring interest of all nations and is vital to global peace and prosperity. The international community has long benefited from the rules-based maritime order, where international law, as reflected in the UN Law of the Sea Convention, sets out the legal framework for all activities in the oceans and seas,” Blinken said. For all the talk about international law, the US never ratified UNCLOS and is not a party to the treaty.
Also in his statement, Blinken reminded China that Washington is willing to risk war over Beijing and Manila’s maritime dispute. “We also reaffirm that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke US mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty,” he said.
The US frequently sails warships near Chinese claimed islands in the South China Sea to challenge Beijing’s claims in provocative maneuvers known as Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs). On Monday, a US Navy destroyer sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands, drawing condemnation from China.
Besides the FONOPs, US military activity in the region has increased overall in recent years as the US is more focused on confronting China. There is now an almost constant presence of US aircraft carriers in the South China Sea, something that used to be a rare occurrence.
The increased military activity coupled with the low state of US-China relations means a military accident between the two nations could lead to a broader conflict. These dangerous policies show no sign of changing, as the Pentagon has identified Beijing as the top “pacing threat,” and there is virtually no opposition to hardline China policies in Washington.
Warmongering Biden and his hand-selected jerks like Antony Blinken are working very hard to provoke China. Even if this doesn’t end in a shooting war (and it might!) there may be fallout for other reasons.
The US elites, in their lust for ever more money, arranged the transfer of American manufacturing to China. One place where this could immediately matter for you and me is pharmaceuticals. My link is mostly about the crappy manufacturing in overseas plants, but I want to focus on the very first part.
Even when prescription drugs are made elsewhere, the necessary ingredients for them are usually manufactured in China! So if Biden & Company keeps pushing, Americans may end up being unable to fill their prescriptions for extended periods, possibly several years.
Without their medicines, many people are going to die from the many ailments being held in check by prescription drugs.
It’s very difficult to stockpile extra meds, but try to do so if you possibly can. Otherwise you may become a casualty in the conflict Biden and his Neocon Nuts are provoking.
8 Ways Overseas Drug Manufacturers Dupe the FDA
I agree many people would die but can’t help but think how many people would be better off. I think the only things we’re number one at are the number of people in prison and the number of people taking medications that are unnecessary.
But for Obamas lunatic Pivot to Asia with its provocative exercises designed to cut Chinas sea passages, the SCS claim and resultant hooha would not have happened
The US rejects that Tribunal, rejects all of its ruling against the US, and takes exactly the same “we won’t participate” attitude that China did.
Chinese concerns about the South China Sea are consistently misrepresented in the American press and government statements.
In the event of war with the US, Chinese merchant ships would have no destinations to which to go, from which to be cut off. The US controls the other end of all the sea lanes, the destinations. Is China going to get iron ore from Australia when at war with the US? Oil from the Gulf? Exports from South America?
No, the concern of China is for the things coming across the South China Sea in the other direction, toward China. It is a defensive concern.
The islets of sand built in the South China Sea are warning stations, and a first line of AA defenses. They don’t open the world ocean to China, they close the South China Sea to attacks on China.
Seen in that light, the US outrage becomes much more obnoxious and threatening to China and to world peace.