Mattis accuses Beijing of intimidation in South China sea

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June 2, 2018 6:12 AM

SINGAPORE — U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis harshly criticized the Chinese government on Saturday for its continuing militarization of a string of islands in the South China Sea.

“Despite China’s claims to the contrary, the placement of these weapons systems is tied directly to military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion,” Mattis said during a speech Saturday at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security conference.

Mattis recently disinvited the Chinese military from a large, multinational naval exercise this summer due in part to China’s positioning of those weapons, including anti-ship and surface-to-air missiles, on the Spratly Islands.

Mattis’ remarks come as the United States tries to navigate increased tensions with Beijing, even as the Trump administration seeks Chinese help in curbing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

On Sunday, two U.S. warships sailed within 12 miles of islands in the South China Sea in an attempt to assert the U.S. stance on freedom of navigation in international waters. China has laid claim to most of the South China Sea, in defiance of international norms.

Aaron Friedberg, a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University and a former deputy assistant for national security affairs, said that Mattis’ speech was probably meant to ease U.S. allies’ concerns not just about regional threats but also about President Donald Trump’s oft-changing foreign policy.

Mattis said little about North Korea in his speech, which came just hours after Trump said that the June 12 talks in Singapore with the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, were back on. He said America’s goal remained the “irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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