US: China must stop aggressive behavior

China must stop aggressive actions in the South China Sea and stop using water cannons against Philippine shipping. Reuters writes. US Navy Vice Admiral Carl Thomas has called for a “response and inquiry” into Chinese aggression.

In this sense, Thomas supports the Philippines in its “shared challenges” with China. “My troops are here for a reason,” he said, referring to the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, the largest in their ranks. The fleet consists of 70 ships, 150 aircraft and more than 27,000 sailors serving an area of ​​124 million square kilometers from bases in Japan, South Korea and Singapore.

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So there’s a lot going on in a gray area, Thomas believes. “You’re constantly challenging people in a relatively gray area,” he told Reuters. “If they push you more and more, you can hit back.”

Water cannon

As an example, Thomas cites the August 5 Chinese water cannon attack on a Philippine cargo ship carrying supplies to a Philippine naval base. Following the attack, the US Navy and Philippine Western Command Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos reached out to discuss possible responses and “understand the challenges we can overcome together”.

According to Thomas, those interfaces exist. “I wanted to better understand how he sees the situation he’s in charge of and what I have to offer,” he says. Thomas took off from Manila, Philippines yesterday to assess the situation in the South China Sea.

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China still believes it has exclusive rights in the South China Sea, ignoring a 2016 ruling in which a tribunal in favor of the Philippines ruled that there was no constitutional basis for China’s sovereignty claims in the waters. After all, the claimed area overlaps with the exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.