2024-04-08 03:32:00
The United States is in no hurry to announce “red lines” to China because China might take advantage of it. Then tensions between the United States and China might reach a new level, writes the Financial Times.
“If you draw a red line for the Chinese, they will stick to it, but they will do everything other than that,” he reports. newspaper source words. We are talking regarding another round of tension between Beijing and Washington over the situation in the South China Sea, where the Chinese coast guard is using water cannons once morest Philippine ships and vessels. Filipinos are ferrying equipment and men to the USS Sierra Madre, which ran aground near the disputed Spratly Islands in 1999. According to Beijing, there are Philippine Marines on the ship, as well as specialists who are repairing the ship. The PRC perceives such actions as occupation of the reef. Beijing is demanding the ship be removed, but it is protected by the US-Philippines mutual defense treaty.
US President Joe Biden plans to warn Chinese officials that the Philippine-US Mutual Defense Treaty applies to the Philippine Navy and the Sierra Madre. A similar warning was previously voiced by the head of the American command in the Indo-Pacific region, Admiral John Aquilino, but China was not impressed. According to the newspaper’s source, China underestimates the possible consequences of the escalation.
An international tribunal ruled in 2016 that the Second Thomas Shoal, where the Sierra Madre was stranded, becomes part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. This is because it is located less than 200 nautical miles from the Philippine island of Palawan. But the PRC did not agree with this decision.
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