(The Hill)
Zack Budryk 11/18/19 09:34 AM
Chinese defense officials on Monday warned their U.S. counterparts against “flexing muscles” in the disputed South China Sea after a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, according to The Associated Press.
Ministry of Defense spokesman Col. Wu Qian said the disputed area was one of several topics Esper and Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe discussed earlier in the day.
“We agreed to keep talking and engaging frequently,” Esper told reporters after the meeting, according to the AP. “We continue to make progress on any number of issues.”
“The Chinese side also urges the U.S. side to stop flexing muscles in the South China Sea and do not provoke and escalate tensions in the South China Sea,” Wu said through a Chinese interpreter.
China has long claimed the sea as sovereign territory despite overlapping claims by other governments in the region, and the U.S. has sailed Navy ships through parts of the sea China considers restricted, according to the AP.
Jonathan Hoffman, a spokesman for Esper, said that during the meeting the U.S. defense chief “pointedly reiterated that the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows — and we will encourage and protect the rights of other sovereign nations to do the same.”
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