China: US 'inciting confrontation' with stance on South China Sea

https://thehill.com ^ | 07/14/20 09:52 AM EDT | BY JOHN BOWDEN -

[RomanSoldier19]

Chinese officials slammed the U.S. on Tuesday over continued territorial disputes in the South China Sea after the U.S. issued a formal statement declaring most of China's claims in the region to be illegitimate.

A statement posted on the website of China's embassy in Washington, D.C., accused the U.S. of "flexing muscles" over a situation in which it was not directly involved.

“The United States is not a country directly involved in the disputes. However, it has kept interfering in the issue,” read the statement. “Under the pretext of preserving stability, it is flexing muscles, stirring up tension and inciting confrontation in the region.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's Monday statement on the matter, it continued, "deliberately distorts the facts and international law including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), exaggerates the situation in the region and attempts to sow discord between China and other littoral countries."

[RomanSoldier19]

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[mylife]

The world disagrees xi

[butlerweave]

Oh no they’re going to Cry

[central_va]

Go ahead PLN, shoot a torp at a US warship. See what happens next.

[DoughtyOne]

It’s about free passage on the high seas China.

I know that concept doesn’t come to you naturally, but it is
a policy that has been active on the high seas for hundreds
of years.

It has been internationally recognized. Sorry you guys are living in the mid last millennium.

[puppypusher]

Yea!By allowing China to take control of the entire South and East China seas we’re inciting confrontation.

What the hell do they think their doing?

[puppypusher]

“Yea!By allowing China to take control of the entire South and East China seas we’re inciting confrontation.

What the hell do they think their doing?”

That should have read By not allowing China to take control of the entire South and East China seas we’re inciting confrontation.

[cba123]

I am just wondering, whether we would act againt the illegally constructed island bases.

That is the real issue.

[hinckley buzzard]

Probably not at this time, but with open hostilities they would easily be wiped out by missile strikes. After all, they are islands of a sort, targets that don’t move, and locations precisely known. The significance of the fake islands is not military but diplomatic/legal, designed to Validate and expand the Chinese Territorial claims in the Seas between the mainland and the inner ring of islands.

[Zhang Fei]

[Go ahead PLN, shoot a torp at a US warship. See what happens next.]

---

I’m kinda hoping they do this real soon. Any kind of clash would almost, IMO, guarantee Trump’s re-election. Unfortunately, I think Xi Jinping understands that, which is why any PLA/PLAN lifer who fires a shot - assuming he’s not the unlucky recipient of USN ordnance - will find himself reassigned to a remote sandy border area for the rest of his career.

[DoughtyOne]

We should have put the Kabash on that when it started
several administrations ago. I believe it was GW that
allowed that ship to sail.

It should have been objected to at the first ground-
breaking.

What will have to happen now is that when hostilities
do break out, we’ll have to go in and destroy those
bases.

That base(s) is a direct threat to all ocean front nations
in that region, and the islands were contested by at least
two other nations.

I liken it to Japan grabbing islands in the Western
Pacific in it’s lead up to war.

How dumb do you have to be not the see that, and not
to object to it at the U. N. or the World Court.

Our dumb asses bought into those two entities, and don’t
use them when they could.

It’s as if our elected officials know less about global
world history and policy than we do.

[crz]

Is it time for another Castle Bravo test?

WTF? We just blew a GD big hole where they had their little island!

[A strike]

If the evil ChineseCommunist government thinks that it owns the South China Sea , then they cannot enter the Sea of Japan or the Indian Ocean.

[daniel1212]

A statement posted on the website of China's embassy in Washington, D.C., accused the U.S. of "flexing muscles" over a situation in which it was not directly involved.

Pure sophistry, accusing the US of what China is guilty of - "flexing muscles." If the US did not use its muscles in a situation in which it was not directly involved then the world would be mostly speaking German and Japanese. And while US China political policy was faulty and failed, yet it did provide substantial aid to a divisive country whose..

Nationalist army was ill-equipped to fight the Japanese in 1941. Its arsenals were so lacking in nonferrous metals and explosives that they could not produce effectively. The maintenance of millions of ill-trained and under-equipped troops was a heavy drain on the economy. (https://www.britannica.com/place/China/Civil-war-1945-49) President Roosevelt approved $25 million in military aid to China on 19 December 1940, permitting the Chinese to purchase one hundred P 40 pursuit aircraft. By late spring 1941, the United States had also earmarked over $145 million in lend-lease funds for China to acquire both ground and air equipment. (https://history.army.mil/brochures/72-38/72-38.HTM)

[Elsie]

Not to worry; as GW will send all that melted ice to COVER them low-lying ‘islands’.

[PIF]

Go ahead PLN, shoot a torp at a US warship.

```
They don’t need to so that, since they are directly behind the internal turmoil here in the states pushing for a Biden Presidency and a return to the China first policy

[Old Yeller]

The Chi-coms are waiting until the election. If the DeomicRats steak it, China controls the DemonicRats. Every one of them.

[Steely Tom]

I set up an armed checkpoint on your street, right in front of your driveway. Then when you call the police and show up in force, I accuse you of ‘inciting a confrontation.’