US slams Chinese ‘nature reserve’ as effort to claim South China Sea

The United States has slammed China over a territorial dispute with the Philippines in the South China Sea, a key maritime region that has emerged as a flash point for questions of regional sovereignty.

In a statement on Saturday, the US State Department said China was seeking to deny Filipino fishermen access to the area surrounding the Scarborough Reef, near the island of Luzon.

It also rejected China’s claims that the area constituted a “nature reserve”, dismissing the assertion as a bid by Beijing to advance its territorial ambitions.

“The United States rejects China’s ongoing attempts to enforce its destabilizing ‘national nature reserve’ at Scarborough Reef and deny Filipino fishermen access to their traditional fishing ground,” the statement reads.

“This is yet another unilateral attempt by China to use dubious environmental and legal pretexts, backed by coercion, to advance its sweeping territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea at the expense of its neighbors.”

The statement concluded with a line that the US “stands with our Ally, the Philippines, in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific”.

In recent weeks, tensions have flared in the South China Sea, after Chinese ships fired water cannon on Filipino fishing vessels near the Scarborough Shoal.

The area has been claimed by both China and the Philippines as each country’s sovereign territory, in a decades-long dispute.

The Philippines has brought its case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which largely dismissed China’s sweeping claims to the area as unlawful under international maritime law.

But China refused to participate with the arbitration panel and has instead advanced what is widely called the “nine-dash line”: a looping border that asserts Chinese sovereignty across much of the South China Sea.

China has become more assertive in the region in recent years, constructing artificial islands and intercepting Philippine fishermen in the contested waters.

Critics speculate that China is seeking to translate its claims over the South China Sea into greater economic heft and military power. The sea is not only a strategic zone for military operations, but more than $3 trillion worth of goods pass through the area annually.

The US has sought to use such territorial disputes to advance its own position in Asia, and it frequently weighs in on the side of its allies in the region in the face of aggressive manoeuvring from Beijing.

In April, for instance, the US held joint military operations with Canada and Australia in the region, reiterating its “support of a free and open Indo-Pacific”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also condemned certain Chinese activities in the area, including the use of water cannon against Filipino vessels.

“The whole world saw it, and it’s disturbing,” Rubio told reporters on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Manila in July.

“We have a role, and we’re not going to abandon our allies,” he added. “We’ve made that abundantly clear.”