Mr. Pompeo said that “Beijing has failed to put forth a lawful, coherent maritime claim in the South China Sea,” and so the United States was rejecting any Chinese claim to waters beyond a 12-nautical mile territorial sea derived from land features or legitimate islands. The Philippines brought the case against China in The Hague, arguing that China had violated the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which Beijing is a party. The big question now is what the United States intends to do about the Chinese military presence in those areas and other parts of the vast sea claimed by Beijing. The Chinese military warns American military planes that pass close to the reef. Since the Obama administration, the U.S. Navy has been conducting what it calls freedom-of-navigation operations across the South China Sea to challenge Chinese claims to the waters.

Source: New York Times July 13, 2020 22:23 UTC