Japan, Philippines, US rebuke China over ‘dangerous’ South China Sea moves

Al Jazeera:

The leaders of Japan, the Philippines and the United States have voiced “serious concern” over China’s actions in the disputed South China Sea.

Beijing has stepped up its activities in the strategic waterway in recent years, and tensions have risen, particularly with the Philippines, one of several Southeast Asian countries that claim the parts of the sea around their coastlines.

Last month, Philippines’s President Ferdinand Marcos said Manila would take countermeasures against China after a confrontation off Second Thomas Shoal injured Filipino soldiers and damaged vessels.

“We express our serious concerns about the People’s Republic of China’s [PRC] dangerous and aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea,” the three leaders said in a joint statement at the end of a first-ever summit between the three countries, which took place in Washington, DC.

Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea under its so-called nine-dash line, which was rejected by an international court in 2016.

As well as the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam also claim parts of the sea.

The statement noted the “importance of respecting the sovereign rights of states within their exclusive economic zones [EEZ] consistent with international law, as reflected in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [UNCLOS]”.

It also reiterated the three states’ opposition to China’s “dangerous and coercive use of Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels in the South China Sea”.