The us welcomes competition and doesn’t seek conflict with Beijing – but will speak abreast of issues like maritime disputes within the South China Sea, vice chairman Kamala Harris has declared as she concluded a visit to Southeast Asia .
In visits to Singapore and Vietnam, Harris charged China with bullying its neighbours within the region, triggering sharp rebukes from Beijing, which accused the US of meddling in regional affairs and disrupting the peace.
We welcome stiff competition, we don’t seek conflict but on issues like the South China Sea, we are getting to speak up,” Harris told a press conference in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi on Thursday.
“We are getting to speak up when there are actions that Beijing takes that threaten the rules-based international order,” she added.
Harris’s seven-day trip to Singapore and Vietnam is a component of a broader US strategy to require on China globally. Her visit, however, was eclipsed by the deadly events in Afghanistan and therefore the ongoing withdrawal folks troops.
China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan claim to parts of the disputed waters of the South China Sea, which is crossed by vital shipping lanes and contains gas fields and rich fishing grounds.
In meetings with Vietnamese leaders on Wednesday, Harris said China’s “bullying and excessive maritime claims” within the waters should be challenged and offered US support to reinforce Vietnam’s maritime security, including more visits by US warships to the country.
Her statements drew condemnation from Chinese state media.
On Wednesday, the state-run newspaper China Daily, responding to Harris’s comments in Singapore, said Harris had “willfully ignored her own hypocrisy” in attempting to rally countries within the region against China.
On Thursday, after her meetings in Hanoi, the worldwide Times newspaper said the US was “dreaming” to incite Vietnam to confront China.
“For Washington, it couldn’t be better if a replacement war between Beijing and Hanoi breaks out,” the tabloid, published by the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party , said in an article .
‘Havana Syndrome’
In addition to rebukes by China’s foreign ministry and state media, Beijing attempted to stage its own diplomatic coup during the trip with a surprise meeting in Vietnam, held as Harris’s departure from Singapore was delayed by three hours.
During the previously unannounced meeting, between Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and therefore the Chinese ambassador, Chinh said Vietnam doesn’t take sides in policy and thanked the ambassador for a replacement donation of two million doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
In her own meeting with Chinh at some point later, Harris pledged a US donation of 1 million Pfizer vaccine doses to Vietnam.
Harris’s delayed arrival was later attributed by the US Embassy in Hanoi to a mystery health incident potentially associated with the mysterious “Havana Syndrome,” a condition of unknown origin that has sickened a minimum of 200 US officials, including CIA officers, with symptoms including nausea, migraines and memory lapses.
“I will tell you we’re looking into it and I’m unable to share far more at this point ,” Harris said of the incident in Thursday’s press conference .
Geopolitical test
The US administration has called rivalry with China “the biggest geopolitical test” of the century because it tries to rebuild its relationships within the region with a series of high-profile visits.
During the previous couple of years, tensions between China and Vietnam within the South China Sea have remained high, although Hanoi has attempted to strike a fragile balancing act.
Hanoi and Beijing’s ruling Communist parties maintain close ties and Vietnam depends on imported Chinese materials to support its manufacturing and exports.
Meanwhile, ties with old foe the US have grown increasingly close, although Washington has said there are limits to the connection until Vietnam makes progress on human rights, a problem Harris said she raised with the country’s leaders.
“We won’t recoil from speaking out, even when those conversations, could also be difficult to possess , and maybe difficult to listen to ,” she told reporters.
