U.s.-vietnam boost ties to warn China against maritime expansion

AHigh-level United States (U.S.) visit to Vietnam followed by plans to send Washington naval vessels may herald a tougher American policy toward China in Asia’s stickiest maritime sovereignty dispute.

Pentagon Defense Secretary James Mattis met in Vietnam last week with the host country’s president, Tran Dai Quang, as well as the general secretary of its ruling Communist Party and a Vietnamese military counterpart.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam vie for control over all or parts of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer seas between Hong Kong and Borneo. They resent passage of Beijing’s coast guard vessels and it’s land- filling of small islets for military installations, hallmarks of growing maritime control by Asia’s chief military power.

China claims about 90 per cent of the sea. It cites historical records to document the claims. In mid2016 a world arbitration court ruled at the request of the Philippines against the extent of the Chinese claim. China rejected the ruling but since then made peace with other claimants by offering aid, investment and joint marine research.

Over the past year, China also built up three islets in the sea’s Spratly archipelago and three more in the Paracel chain, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. Vietnam says the Paracels fall under its flag.