That confusion was shared by one of China’s most prominent experts on the South China Sea, who also questioned the legality of any American effort to block access to the islands. Or will this be a policy option?” said Zhu Feng, executive director of the China Center for Collaborative Studies of the South China Sea at Nanjing University. During his tenure, the company forged close ties to the Vietnamese government, signing an agreement in 2009 with a state-owned firm to drill for oil and gas in two areas in the South China Sea. The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry did not reply to a request for comment about Mr. Tillerson’s remarks. “When it comes to South China Sea, we’ll have to wait and see.”

Source: New York Times January 12, 2017 12:51 UTC