South China Sea: US security adviser says China’s claim is ‘ridiculous’

US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien called Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea “ridiculous.” SCMP.

Mr. Robert O’Brien also announced upcoming meetings with other Japanese, Indians and Australians to strengthen advocacy associations in the region.

Robert O’Brien said China’s claims on almost the entire South China Sea, where Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries claim partial sovereignty, have been “everywhere. Big countries, all countries have rebuttal. “.

O’Brien’s comments came during an online discussion with Paula Dobrianky, vice president of the Atlantic Council’s Center for Strategy and Security, Scowcroft.

“China’s statement has been affected [một tòa án] on the Law of the Sea rejected, and now they participate in military drills in waters that they consider their own, “said O’Brien, referring to the 2016 court ruling in The Hague, which defines China as not having a” historical right “on the South China Sea.

“The United States will not depart from its long-standing principles that the world’s maritime routes and international waters must be free of navigation, and the same is true of space and air rights in international airspace.”

Beijing rejected the Hue court’s ruling, arguing that it is “non-binding.”

O’Brien said high-level meetings of the “Quartet,” which include the United States, Japan, Australia and India, are being planned and that US Secretary of State Mike Pompe will meet with his foreign ministers in September. . and october

O’Brien also mentioned the citizen monitoring and scoring system in China, arguing that America’s opposition to China is part of a broader effort to challenge totalitarianism than Washington and its allies. It has been done since WWII ended.

“You have a Chinese Communist Party that is the heir … Stalin’s Russian Communist Party,” he said. “They have full control over their people and … [và] They are currently exploiting that control in places like Hong Kong, where they have abandoned Sino-British claims and imposed national security laws in Hong Kong,

“They are intimidating, the ROC, Taiwan, they are trying to intimidate India,” O’Brien added. “It will be more difficult for them because the Indians will not accept it. They will stand up to defend their own sovereignty.”

The dispute between Beijing and Washington over the South China Sea has escalated since Beijing began claiming land in 2016 in various places in the Spratly Archipelago and building a new city on one of the islands. Island – Tam Sa on the island of Phu Lam.

The Trump administration has directly challenged the Chinese claims by calling them “completely illegal.”

Recently, China has fired two missiles into the South China Sea in response to the Chinese claim that the United States had sent spy planes into “forbidden” waters where North China was rehearsing to fire live bullets.