Blinken: US Concerned Over Beijing’s ‘Dangerous and Unlawful Actions’ in South China Sea

The United States is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful actions” in the South and East China Seas, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told leaders from the region on Thursday. Speaking in Laos to leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Blinken also warned Beijing not to use Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s national day speech on Thursday as a “pretext for provocative actions.” In response, the Chinese regime blamed the United States and other military presences outside the region for instability in the waterway, which Beijing claims almost entirely. The communist-controlled People’s Republic of China (PRC) claims sovereignty over almost all of the South China Sea. It rejected a 2016 international arbitration ruling by a U.N.-affiliated court in the Hague that invalidated its expansive claims and has built up and militarized the islands it controls....