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A Chinese Coast Guard vessel patrols the disputed Scarborough Shoal on April 5, 2017. Photo taken on April 5, 2017. REUTERS / Erik De Castro / File photo
WASHINGTON, United States – The United States said on Friday it will deploy Coast Guard patrol boats to the western Pacific to counter China’s “destabilizing and evil” activities in disputed fishing grounds in the South China Sea.
White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien accused China of “illegal” and “unregulated” fishing, as well as “harassment” of fishing vessels from countries in the region, in a statement that the US Coast Guard Response Cutters … in the Western Pacific. “
These Sentinel-class vessels will carry out maritime security operations, including assisting fishing vessels “in collaboration with regional partners that have limited surveillance and compliance capabilities on the high seas, and will ensure freedom of navigation,” he said. .
Washington regularly accuses China of violating international law by sending its warships as escorts for Chinese fishing vessels to the fishing grounds of other countries.
In July, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper criticized a “catalog of misbehavior” in the South China Sea during the previous months and accused the Chinese military of having sunk a Vietnamese fishing boat, harassing the development of Malaysian oil and gas and escorting Chinese fishing fleets to Indonesia’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
O’Brien added that the Coast Guard, which reports to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was also studying the possibility of permanently stationing several of its patrol boats in the American Samoa area of the South Pacific.
Last month, Indonesia protested an incursion by Chinese coast guard ships into its exclusive economic zone, which is situated between its own territorial waters and international waters and where the state claims exclusive rights to exploit natural resources.
China claims nearly the entire South China Sea as its own, a claim contested by several countries, including Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia.
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