US, China accuse each other of 'bullying' South-east Asian nations
HANOI US Vice-President Kamala Harris yesterday again charged China with bullying its South-east Asian neighbours, the second time in two days she has attacked Beijing during a regional visit aimed at countering China's growing influence.
Earlier yesterday, Chinese state media accused Ms Harris of seeking to drive a wedge between China and South-east Asian nations with comments in Singapore that Beijing used coercion and intimidation to back its unlawful South China Sea claims.
"While pointing a finger at China and accusing it of 'coercion' and 'intimidation', Harris wilfully ignored her own hypocrisy in attempting to coerce and intimidate regional countries to join Washington in its scheme to contain China," the state-run China Daily said in an editorial responding to Ms Harris' comments in Singapore.
Speaking in Hanoi yesterday, Ms Harris again said there was a need to increase pressure on Beijing over its maritime claims.
"We need to find ways to pressure, raise the pressure... on Beijing to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to challenge its bullying and excessive maritime claims," she said during a meeting with Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
Responding to Ms Harris' speech in Hanoi, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said yesterday that the US has conducted military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, yet it claims it is protecting the interests of small countries.
"If the US says it is trying to maintain its own hegemonic position and its own self-interests, then I think that is more credible," Mr Wang said.
"The Chinese side firmly opposes the deployment of US maritime forces in the South China Sea to intervene in regional affairs and disrupt the region's peace and stability." - REUTERS
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