US Defense Secretary Mark Esper plans to visit China for talks on how to improve two-way communications in a crisis as geopolitical tensions between the superpowers rise and concerns mount over a potential South China Sea flashpoint. But China “has no right to turn international waters into a zone of exclusion for its own maritime empire,” he said. Two days later, the Pentagon said two of its own aircraft carriers had carried out drills in the South China Sea to “support a free and open Indo-Pacific,” a spokesman said. “The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire,” Pompeo declared in a statement. “We are making clear: 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,” Pompeo said.

Source: Manila Times July 22, 2020 14:26 UTC