Today, Saturday, the United States called on China to halt its actions in the South China Sea.
This comes after the Philippine Coast Guard said that a Chinese coast guard vessel had recently approached a Philippine patrol vessel.
“We call on Beijing to cease its unsafe behavior,” Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement.
Meber added that any attack on the Armed Forces of the Philippines would require the activation of US defense commitments.
The incident occurred while the Philippine Coast Guard was carrying out week-long patrols of the strategic waterway and as Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang was visiting Manila over the weekend to meet with his Philippine counterpart and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which some $3 trillion worth of goods pass each year.
The coast guard said that during the mission from April 18 to 24, it spotted “a warship of the People’s Liberation Army Navy and two ships of the Chinese coast guard” within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
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