Pompeo to visit amid tensions at sea and trade

US sec state’s trip shadowed by claims and warship manoeuvres

BEIJING: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is due to visit Beijing next week amid tensions over trade and China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.

China’s foreign ministry announced Pompeo will visit on Monday for consultations on bilateral and international issues.

The ministry gave no details, but based on previous visits by American secretaries of state, he would be likely to meet with China’s foreign minister, senior foreign policy advisers and President Xi Jinping.

The visit comes as the US administration is accusing China of trying to undermine President Donald Trump, who accused China during a meeting of the UN Security Council of interfering in American elections to help his Democratic rivals.

“They do not want me, or us, to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade,” Trump said, later referencing as evidence an advertising insert in The Des Moines Register paid for by Chinese government-affiliated entities.

Since Trump took office last year, his administration has escalated pressure on China, most recently with several rounds of tit-for-tat economic trade tariffs on hundreds of billions in goods.

Trump’s first national security strategy released last year also labelled China a “revisionist power” alongside Russia.

Additionally, ties have wors-

I am the first president ever to challenge China. Donald Trump

ened in recent weeks with a US decision to issue economic sanctions over the purchase of Russian fighter jets and surfaceto-air missile equipment. In response, China summoned the American ambassador and defence attache to deliver a protest, and recalled its navy commander from a US trip.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has since dropped plans to visit China in October for talks.

Meanwhile, a Chinese destroyer came aggressively close to a US Navy ship in the South China Sea, forcing it to manoeuvre to prevent a collision, the US Pacific Fleet said on Tuesday.

The Chinese warship approached the USS Decatur in an “unsafe and unprofessional manoeuvre” on Sunday near Gaven Reefs in the South China Sea, said US Pacific Fleet Spokesman Lt Cmdr Tim Gorman.

At one point, the ships were within 40m of each other.

China claims most of the strategic waterway and has built islands on reefs and equipped them with military facilities such as airstrips, radar domes and missile systems. —