Harris denounces China in visit to Philippines

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday denounced China for what she called “intimidation and coercion” in the disputed waters of the South China Sea and promised that the United States would stand by the Philippines, at a time when the Biden administration is looking for ways to counter Beijing's influence in the region.

Harris made her remarks in a speech to members of the Philippine coast guard in Palawan, the province closest to the disputed Spratly Islands, where the Philippines has accused China for years of harassing its fishing vessels and naval ships. Earlier Tuesday, she visited a Palawan fishing village.

“Communities like this have seen the consequences when foreign vessels enter Philippine waters and illegally deplete the fishing stock, when they harass and intimidate local fishers, when they pollute the ocean and destroy the marine ecosystem,” said Harris, who did not single out China by name.

China claims nearly all of the South China Sea as its own, flouting an international tribunal's rejection of that assertion. In recent years, it has aggressively expanded its presence in the sea, through which much of the world's shipping passes. It has built and fortified artificial islands and deployed fleets of ships to drive vessels from smaller nations, including the Philippines, out of contested areas.

In the Philippines, many saw Harris' two-day visit as a sign of the country's growing significance to President Joe Biden's foreign policy as he seeks partners to counter China. The U.S.-Philippine relationship had soured somewhat under the overlapping administrations of President Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte.