China has warned the United States against supporting the Philippines in the South China Sea, as Washington pledged to back its allies in the region during a high-level meeting in Beijing on Wednesday.
“The United States should not use bilateral treaties as a pretext to undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, nor should it support or condone the Philippines’ illegal actions,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan during their talks, according to Chinese broadcaster CCTV.
Biden’s top adviser “reiterated the United States’ commitment to defending its allies in the Indo-Pacific,” according to a statement released by the White House on Wednesday. Jake Sullivan also “expressed concern over China’s destabilizing actions against lawful Philippine maritime activities in the South China Sea,” according to the report released by the US executive.
He also, in the now-standard US language on the matter, “stressed the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
China and Russia
The US envoy also once again expressed American “concerns” over “China’s support for the Russian defense industry.”
Tensions between Beijing and Manila have escalated in recent months and have been marked by a series of confrontations in the South China Sea, where Beijing claims a large part of the islands and reefs despite a ruling by an international tribunal that rejected these claims in 2016.
On Monday, China announced it had taken “control measures” after a new incident with Philippine ships near a disputed atoll in the South China Sea, the fourth in a week. According to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, Mr. Wang told his American interlocutor that China was “firmly committed to safeguarding its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights over the islands in the South China Sea.”
Japan and the Philippines, two US allies, have blamed Beijing for tensions in the South China Sea, with Tokyo saying Beijing is the “biggest disruptor” of peace in Southeast Asia.
Jake Sullivan’s trip is the first by a White House national security adviser to China since 2016. It shows, according to Washington, a desire to maintain dialogue between the two superpowers, expressed in November 2023 during a meeting between Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in California.
Military communication
The White House considered that the discussions in Beijing had been “frank, substantial and constructive.” The United States recalled, during the meetings between Jake Sullivan and Wang Yi, “the importance of having regular and continuous communications” at the military level. The discussions focused on the areas of possible cooperation between the two rival powers, in particular the fight against fentanyl trafficking and that against climate change.
On other more contentious subjects between Washington and Beijing, the national security adviser indicated that the Biden administration would continue to take “the necessary decisions to prevent advanced American military technologies from being used in a way that compromises our national security.” The United States has taken a series of measures limiting China’s access to certain cutting-edge technologies, to the great displeasure of Beijing, which sees this as a violation of international trade rules.
Jake Sullivan finally mentioned the case of Americans “detained without reason (in China) or banned from leaving the country,” saying that the subject was a “priority.”
This article is originally published on .voaafrique.com
