(TargetLiberty.org) – US-China relations have just gotten even more tense after Vice President Kamala Harris and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started throwing accusations of bullying and intimidation at each other.
Harris is currently on a week-long visit to Singapore and Vietnam, two states that are coming under increasing pressure from China. She told Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Xuan Phuc while talking in Hanoi on August 25, that the US and its allies have to increase pressure on China to obey international law on freedom of the seas and territorial claims.
"We need to find ways to pressure, raise the pressure…on Beijing to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to challenge its bullying and excessive maritime claims," says US VP Kamala Harris. https://t.co/8xhhKPyz75
— Rappler (@rapplerdotcom) August 25, 2021
The CCP quickly hit back, with Beijing’s foreign ministry accusing the US of causing disruptions and meddling where it doesn’t belong. State-run media also reported that Harris was trying to “coerce” and “intimidate” regional countries into turning against China. Meanwhile, China is trying to assert control over the South China Sea, where much of the world’s cargo passes through when shipped. Other countries bordering that sea – including Vietnam, which fought off a Chinese invasion in 1979 – are increasingly worried about Beijing’s aggression and want closer links with the US as a deterrent.
Now Harris has offered Vietnam more frequent visits by US warships and aircraft as a sign of American determination to stop China’s expansion. The problem is, with US troops mired in an undignified scramble to leave Afghanistan this week, will China take the Biden administration’s tough talk seriously?
Copyright 2021, TargetLiberty.org
