China has accused the United States of
being the "biggest driver of militancy" in the South China Sea, as
tensions between Washington and Beijing amount to turning a regional Asian
summit.
This year's ASEAN conference is expected’
to address the US-China hostility debate, just days after Beijing fired
ballistic missiles into Flashpoint waters as part of a direct fire exercise.
Beijing, which claims a majority in the
resource-rich South China Sea, has also approached Vietnam, the Philippines,
Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan to justify its alleged historic rights to its
so-called nine-dash line key trade waterway. Competed
As tensions rise, Chinese Foreign Minister
Wang Yi told an online meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers that
"the United States is becoming the biggest driver of militarization in the
South China Sea."
Wang said China's biggest interest in
waters was "peace and stability", while accusing the United States of
"creating tensions and profiting from them."
On Thursday, Wang added, "The South
China Sea is becoming the most dangerous element to the peace process,"
Wang added, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
China has bolstered its claim to the South
China Sea by building small shells and rock formations in airports and military
bases with port facilities.
It rejected a 2016 ruling by a UN-backed
tribunal that its claims had no legal basis.
This year's ASEAN summit is the first
meeting Beijing has called "cruel" since the United States imposed
sanctions on two dozen Chinese companies for building artificial islands in
disputed waters.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,
meanwhile, has accused the Chinese Communist Party of pursuing "clear and
swift patterns of intimidation of its neighbors."
A recent dispute between China and the
Philippines over the Scarborough Shoal - the region's richest fishing ground -
also hangs in the balance.
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