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HANOI: Washington’s top diplomat on Thursday (September 10) urged Southeast Asia to cut ties with Chinese companies that help build islands in the South China Sea, weeks after the United States blacklisted two dozen companies working in the disputed waters.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s comments came at a regional Asian summit overshadowed by rivalry between the United States and China on a variety of issues, from trade to the coronavirus.
Tensions are also simmering over the South China Sea, with the United States last month sanctioning 24 Chinese state-owned companies that it said helped Beijing’s military consolidation on the resource-rich waterway.
LEE: The United States becomes the driver of militarization in the South China Sea: Wang Yi
Pompeo said it was time for Southeast Asian governments to reconsider their own relationship with companies working at sea.
“Don’t just talk, but act,” he told the 10 foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) during an online summit.
“Rethink business deals with state-owned companies that intimidate ASEAN coastal states in the South China Sea.
“Don’t let the Chinese Communist Party trample on us and our people.”
Controversial claims in the South China Sea AFP
This year’s ASEAN summit comes days after Beijing launched ballistic missiles into the South China Sea as part of live-fire exercises.
Vietnam, which is chairing the summit, expressed “serious concern” about the recent militarization of the sea.
“This has eroded confidence, increased tension and undermined peace, security and the rule of law in the region,” Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh said.
READ: Don’t Catch Us In Your Rivalry: Indonesia to USA, China
Commentary: Southeast Asia is rejecting Beijing in the South China Sea
But the Philippines already said last week that it would not follow the example of the United States because it needed Chinese investment, even as a new dispute between the two nations over Scarborough Shoal, one of the richest fishing grounds in the region, looms over the talks.
And China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi blamed the United States for the tensions, claiming that Washington was “becoming the biggest driver” of the militarization of the waterway.
WATERS ANSWERED
China claims most of the South China Sea, invoking its so-called nine-dash line to justify what it says are historic rights to the key commercial waterway.
Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan dispute parts of China’s declared territory at sea.
Tensions between the United States and China have also been exacerbated by concerns over Hong Kong, where Beijing recently imposed a draconian national security law in response to months of civil unrest last year.
Pompeo “joined several countries in raising concerns about … the arrests of pro-democracy students, the postponement of elections for a year and the disqualification of pro-democracy electoral candidates,” according to spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus.
