US Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a pointy rebuke to China for its incursions within the South China Sea, warning its actions there quantity to “coercion” and “intimidation” and affirming that the US will help its allies within the area in opposition to Beijing’s advances.
“We know that Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea,” she mentioned in a serious international coverage speech Tuesday in Singapore during which she laid out the Biden administration’s imaginative and prescient for the Indo-Pacific. “Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations.”
Harris, who’s on a weeklong swing by Southeast Asia, declared that the US “stands with our allies and our partners” within the face of threats from China.
The speech sought to cement the US dedication to supporting its allies in an space of rising significance to the Biden administration, which has made countering China’s affect globally a centerpiece of its international coverage. And it got here throughout a vital second for the United States, because the Biden administration seeks to additional solidify its pivot towards Asia whereas America’s decades-long concentrate on the Middle East involves a messy finish with the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
US Vice President Kamala Harris, third left, takes half in a roundtable at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore earlier than departing for Vietnam on the second leg of her Southeast Asia journey, Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. (AP)
Harris underscored this shift, calling the Indo-Pacific “critically important to our nation’s security and prosperity.” She mentioned that whereas the US is targeted on closing out its Afghanistan engagement by evacuating as many individuals as doable, “it is also imperative that as we address developments in one region, we continue to advance our interests in other regions, including this region.”
Her rebuke to Beijing amounted to her sharpest feedback but on the US foe. And China hit again, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin invoking Afghanistan in his response to a query about Harris’ feedback, saying the messy withdrawal from Kabul confirmed the US had misplaced credibility. He charged that the US “can smear, suppress, coerce, and bully other countries at will in order to maintain America first, without paying any price.”
“This is the order that the US wants. The US always tries to make use of the rules and order to justify its own selfish, bullying and hegemonic behavior, but who still believe it now?” Wang mentioned.
US Vice President Kamala Harris visits the USS Tulsa in Singapore, Monday, Aug. 23, 2021. (AP)
In her remarks, Harris was cautious to emphasise that the US is looking for better engagement within the Indo-Pacific area not simply to counter China, however to advance an “optimistic vision that we have for our participation and partnership in the region.” In deference to Singapore’s staunch neutrality within the US-China dispute, Harris additionally affirmed that the US isn’t seeking to “make anyone choose between countries.”
Speaking in a rustic that serves because the anchor of the US naval presence in Southeast Asia, Harris emphasised the importance the area holds for US protection. She additionally emphasised the numerous US financial ties there, noting that Southeast Asia represents America’s fourth largest export market.
On Monday, Harris instructed sailors aboard a US fight ship on the Changi naval base in Singapore that “a big part of the history of the 21st century will be written about this very region” and that their work defending the area was pivotal.
US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to troops as she visits the USS Tulsa in Singapore, Monday, Aug. 23, 2021. (AP)
“It is in our vital interest to stand united with our allies and our partners in Southeast Asia in defense of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” she mentioned.
Harris additionally met Monday with Singapore President Halimah Yacob and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The vice chairman’s workplace introduced quite a lot of agreements out of that assembly geared toward combating cyberthreats, tackling local weather change, addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and assuaging provide chain points.
After her speech Tuesday, Harris held a roundtable dialogue with enterprise leaders on provide chain points. Later, she deliberate to journey to Vietnam, the place she’ll meet with prime officers Wednesday.
President Joe Biden himself has repeatedly emphasised his concentrate on China as one among America’s principal adversaries. In current months, his administration has ramped up outreach to the Indo-Pacific area, with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman each visiting the realm within the spring and summer season. Secretary of State Antony Blinken additionally held quite a lot of digital conferences with Southeast Asian officers earlier this month.
The chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, nevertheless, sophisticated that message of help to the area, elevating questions in regards to the US dedication to its allies. While Biden mentioned final week that an indefinite engagement would have benefited “true strategic competitors” China and Russia, China has seized on the photographs of violence from the evacuation to slam the US for its engagement there.
But Harris, throughout a joint information convention with Prime Minister Lee on Monday, mentioned that her presence within the nation, mixed with the agreements round better cooperation that the Biden administration has pursued with Indo-Pacific nations, converse “volumes in terms of the integrity of the relationships that the United States has around the world on many issues.”
