South China Sea Watch: China holds drills amid new tensions

BEIJING — A look at developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple territorial disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons. The waters are a major commercial shipping route and are rich in fish and possible oil and gas reserves.China is holding new military exercises in the South China Sea amid an uptick in tensions between the Asian giant and its Southeast Asian neighbors and the U.S.

However, they follow a series of sorties earlier this month by Chinese warplanes into Taiwan’s airspace at the northern end of the South China Sea. Beijing said those were intended as a warning to the self-governing island that China claims as its own territory to be brought under its control by force if deemed necessary.

Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus recalled Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s statement during a White House visit in 2015 that “China does not intend to pursue militarization” of the Spratly Islands, and that China’s outposts would not “target or impact any country.” China “uses these militarized outposts as platforms of coercion to assert control over waters to which Beijing has no lawful maritime claim, Ortagus said. “They serve as staging grounds for the hundreds of maritime militia vessels and China Coast Guard ships that regularly harass civilian craft and impede legitimate law enforcement activities, offshore fishing, and hydrocarbon development by neighboring states.

Hoanghonggiamin

Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines

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