US slam dunks Chinese claims in troubled waters
Last week two USN aircraft carriers (USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan) began exercises in the South China Sea. This week the US government issued an unprecedentedly explicit rebuttal to exorbitant Chinese territorial claims in the same body of water. The temperature is rising in these troubled waters.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued his carefully concocted statement, called ‘US position on Maritime Claims in the South China Sea,’ on 13 July.
Greg Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tweeted that this was ‘a big deal’.
He added:
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