BEIJING: Beijing said on Monday (Feb 10) that a joint statement by the United States and Japan condemning its “provocative activities” in the contested South China Sea “attacks and smears” China.
China claims almost all of the South China Sea, despite an international ruling in 2016 concluding this has no legal basis.
US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Friday they opposed China’s “unlawful maritime claims, militarisation of reclaimed features, and threatening and provocative activities in the South China Sea” after they met in Washington.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun hit back saying: “The China-related content of the US-Japan joint statement blatantly interferes in China’s internal affairs, attacks and smears China and exaggerates regional tensions”.
China had “lodged solemn representations” with both countries, he added at a regular press briefing.
Friday’s meeting was the first between Trump and Ishiba, who both heaped praise on the other and doubled down on decades-old ties in security and trade.
Japan is one of the United States’ closest allies in Asia, with around 54,000 US military personnel stationed in the country.
Beijing has in recent months pressed its territorial claims in the South China Sea – which overlap Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan’s – more stridently.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/us-japan-south-china-sea-statement-attacks-smears-china-4928276
