US positions for more troublemaking

The US Position on Maritime Claims in the South China Sea issued by the US State Department on Monday has only served to lay bare how eager the country is to foment dissension in the region.

While the United States warned the Southeast Asian nations about China's bullying, as of last year, China and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have held 17 conferences on the betterment of the draft of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, a fruit of their 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, demonstrating their shared commitment to maintain peace and stability in the region and resolve the disputes through discussions.

The countries in the region have the ability to resolve their disputes through political means. That it has taken so long to enact the Code of Conduct can be attributed to the US' brazen troublemaking.

But despite the US' efforts to sow discord, the region has remained focused on common development and sought to maintain peace and stability which benefits all countries in Southeast and East Asia. Thanks to the joint efforts of all parties in the region, ASEAN has become the largest trade partner of China, and the whole regional economy, including those of Japan and the Republic of Korea, has become the global economy's center of gravity.

It is China's rise, which directly benefits the Asia-Pacific, that has made the US feel uneasy about losing its leadership role in the region. That's why the US initiated its pivoting to the region under the Barack Obama administration.

Countries in the region are well aware that the US is only using them as pawns in its game with China, while China wholeheartedly wishes to promote peace and stability in the region, and seek common development with all of them.

The US position paper released by the US Department of State is basically a summary of the South China Sea parts of China-bashing speeches given recently by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien in which both left no stones unturned in urging countries to rally behind the Stars and Stripes to push back against a "bullying China", as if the US can be made great again by bad-mouthing another country.

It has become so difficult for the US to marshal an international alliance to counter China because the charges it directs at China are groundless and one-sided, stoked by its strategic anxiety.

Only those willing to bet their future on the current US administration are likely to be duped by its scaremongering.