#US to back Japan in dispute over Chinese ships in East China Sea

The US will support Japan in any struggle from Chinese ships in the East China Sea, the commander of US Forces Japan said Wednesday.

“The United States is 100%, absolutely steadfast in its commitment to help the government of Japan with the situation in the Senkakus,” Lt. Gen. Kevin Schneider told reporters during a news briefing, using a slang term for a group of islands that are considered disputed territory in the region.

“That is 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he continued.

Schneider made the pledge of support to Japan, which views the US as its sole military ally, after warning that the country was likely to face considerable pressure with the end of a Chinese seasonal fishing ban approaching in August.

The US Forces Japan head went on to accuse the People’s Liberation Army, Chinese armed forces, of taking “aggressive and malign actions” in both the East China Sea and the South China Sea.

“Beijing through the PLA continues to take aggressive and malign actions in the East China Sea and the South China Sea,” Schneider said. “In the South China Sea, they continue to bully partners, neighbors and others who have legitimate claims to territories, islands and features.”

China has laid claim to about 90 percent of the South China Sea, but Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have also laid claim to parts of it.

Beijing has built naval bases atop atolls in the region, but maintains that its intentions are “peaceful.”

Beijing frequently outlines the scope of its territorial claims by referencing the so-called “nine-dashed line” that encompasses about nine-tenths of the 1.3 million-square-mile South China Sea on Chinese maps.

Earlier this month, the US rejected China’s disputed claims to offshore resources in much of the South China Sea.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement at the time that the Chinese government had offered no legal basis for its actions in the region, accusing the country of intimidating its Southeast Asian coastal neighbors to maintain its claim to the area.

“We are making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them,” Pompeo said.

While the US had long opposed China’s expansive territorial claims on the South China Sea by regularly sending warships to demonstrate freedom of navigation to other ships, the move was the harshest yet on the matter.

“The world will not allow Beijing to treat the South China Sea as its maritime empire,” the nation’s top diplomat continued.

With Post wires