(CNN) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday announced a formal rejection of "most" of China's maritime claims in the South China Sea, the latest in the escalation between Washington and Beijing. Describing the move as "strengthening U.S. policy," the top US diplomat asserted that "Beijing's claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them." "The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire. The move is "pretty significant," said Gregory Poling, a senior fellow for Southeast Asia and director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "What the US basically said is that we are going to remain neutral on questions of who owns what island or rock in the South China Sea, but we're no longer going to keep quiet on China's illegal claims to the waters," Poling explained, adding that in the past, the US had been "cagey" on the matter.

Source: CNN July 13, 2020 22:41 UTC