South China Sea: US accuses Beijing of 'coercion and intimidation' in contested waters

US Vice President Kamala Harris visits the USS Tulsa in Singapore on August 23. Photo / AP

Kamala Harris has accused Beijing of coercion and intimidation in the hotly contested waters of the South China Sea, as she sought to reassure America's Asian allies of Washington's commitment to the region.

Speaking in Singapore, part of a short regional tour, the US vice-president spoke about the Biden administration's vision for a region built on rules, human rights and freedom of navigation and trade.

In her speech, Harris singled out Beijing for continuing to "coerce, to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea", adding that China's actions "threaten the sovereignty of nations".

Although she assured Asian countries they would not be forced to choose between the world's two largest economies, she also stressed that "the United States stands with our allies and partners in the face of these threats".

Disputed claims in the South China Sea.

China claims almost the entire resource-rich sea, through which trillions of dollars in shipping trade passes annually, with overlapping claims from Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam#AFPgraphics pic.twitter.com/Hi3PCW9cl6

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 24, 2021

But Beijing hit back at Harris' comments, saying that what was happening in Afghanistan "clearly reveals the US definition of rules and order".

Wang Wenbin, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, accused Washington of arbitrarily launching "military intervention in a country without shouldering the responsibility for the suffering of the people".

He added: "It gets to decide when it wants to come and leave without consulting the international community, not even its allies; it can wantonly smear, suppress, coerce and bully other countries for the sake of 'America First' without paying any price. This is the kind of order that the US wants."

Harris' short Southeast Asia tour, which will also include a visit to Vietnam, has been billed as an attempt by Washington to seek to restore ties in Asia that were strained during the Trump era, and to build a regional coalition of resistance against China's increasingly assertive territorial and security ambitions.

China asserts its right to almost all of the resource-rich waters of the South China Sea, whose fishing grounds, reefs and islands are also claimed by multiple Asian nations including the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.

This is interesting. As far as I’m aware, Vietnam and India have conducted only two other joint exercises—a naval one done quietly in 2013 and a publicized coast guard engagement in 2018. The 2021 iteration sounds like war-fighting tactics in the SCS.https://t.co/xb6zHSUesu

— Derek J. Grossman (@DerekJGrossman) August 19, 2021

Beijing's increasing swagger in the region has raised alarm that Beijing could gain control over shipping lanes through which trillions of dollars of trade pass annually, giving it coercive economic leverage over rival nations.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party has also been accused of militarising the region, deploying anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles there, and of sanctioning aggressive tactics by its coastguard and navy to gain more territorial control, raising tensions in recent months.

But Harris' short Southeast Asia tour comes amid rising doubts in the region about US reliability after its withdrawal from Afghanistan triggered the dramatic fall of Kabul and the return of the Taliban.

China has repeatedly sought to use the Afghan crisis to undermine America's credibility as a global power.

"VP Harris came to Southeast Asia to incite confrontation with China, claiming the US 'stands with' those countries," tweeted Hu Xijin, editor of the Global Times, earlier this week.

"Does the US take Southeast Asian countries as idiots? Before sowing discords in Southeast Asia, the US should at least clean up the mess it left in Afghanistan."