China's insistence that it owns rich resources in most parts of the South China Sea and its bullying of neighbors in order to control them are illegal, US Secretary Mike Pompeo said. Pompeo’s statement released on Tuesday, Manila time, is the strongest position yet by the US on Beijing’s demeanor against other claimant states in support of its expansive claims in the regional waters. “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. The statement was issued just two days after the Philippines marked the fourth year of the UN arbitral tribunal ruling on a case Manila had filed, and dismissed as invalid Beijing’s so-called historical claims to nearly the entire South China Sea, including a portion of the West Philippine Sea.

Acosta, R. (2020, July 15). Pompeo to China: SCS bullying is illegal. Business Mirror, p. A8.