The United States welcomes competition and does not seek conflict with Beijing – but will speak up on issues like maritime disputes in the South China Sea, Vice President Kamala Harris has declared as she concluded a trip to Southeast Asia, reports Al-Jazeera.
In visits to Singapore and Vietnam, Harris charged China with bullying its neighbours in the region, triggering sharp rebukes from Beijing, which accused the US of meddling in regional affairs and disrupting the peace.
We welcome stiff competition, we do not seek conflict but on issues such as the South China Sea, we are going to speak up,” Harris told a news conference in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi on Thursday.
“We are going to speak up when there are actions that Beijing takes that threaten the rules-based international order,” she added.
Harris’s seven-day trip to Singapore and Vietnam is part of a broader US strategy to take on China globally. Her visit, however, was eclipsed by the deadly events in Afghanistan and the ongoing withdrawal of US troops.
China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan lay claim to parts of the disputed waters of the South China Sea, which is crossed by vital shipping lanes and contains gas fields and rich fishing grounds.
In meetings with Vietnamese leaders on Wednesday, Harris said China’s “bullying and excessive maritime claims” in the waters should be challenged and offered US support to enhance Vietnam’s maritime security, including more visits by US warships to the country.
Her statements drew condemnation from Chinese state media.
On Wednesday, the state-run newspaper China Daily, responding to Harris’s comments in Singapore, said Harris had “willfully ignored her own hypocrisy” in attempting to rally countries in the region against China.
