PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii —The United States authorities, below the Biden administration, views China as the one nation with will and army muscle to reshape the world order.
“We still face real challenges in the region. Unfortunately, the People’s Republic of China continues to engage in increasingly coercive behavior,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III mentioned in his remarks throughout the Indo-Pacific Change of Command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on Saturday morning (Manila time).
“And we can see that across the Taiwan Strait, in the East and South China Seas, among the Pacific Island countries, along the Line of Actual Control of India and more,” Austin mentioned.
The US Defense chief went on to say that China “is the only county with both the will —and increasingly, the capacity— to dominate the Indo-Pacific and to reshape the global order to suit its autocratic vision.”
“That’s why the PRC remains the Department’s pacing challenge,” he mentioned.
China is claiming nearly the whole lot of the South China Sea —a conduit for greater than $3 trillion in annual ship commerce.
Beijing’s territorial claims overlap with these of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei.
A portion of the South China Sea inside the Philippine unique financial zone has been renamed the West Philippine Sea.
In 2016, Manila scored a victory in a maritime territorial dispute it lodged in opposition to Beijing on the International Arbitral Tribunal. The nation continues to say its legally binding choice, however China rejects the ruling.
Meanwhile, in his remarks, Austin mentioned that “this year’s Balikatan underway right now.”
Balikatan is the yearly sequence of army workouts between US and Philippine army forces.
The US Defense chief additionally famous that America has expanded its entry to 4 new websites below its Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with the Philippines.
“Indo-Pacom is working with our regional allies and companions like by no means earlier than,” Austin mentioned. —VAL, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
