US Urges China to End ‘Routine Harassment’ in South China Sea

A Philippine flag flutters from BRP Sierra Madre, a dilapidated Philippine Navy ship that has been around since 1999 and became a Philippine military detachment on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, part of the Spratly Islands, in the South China Sea on March 29, 2014. Erik De Castro/Reuters

The United States on July 11 urged China to stop interfering with the freedoms of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea and end its “routine harassment” of claimant state vessels operating in their exclusive economic zones (EEZ).

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller issued a statement on the eve of the seventh anniversary of the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal that nullified China’s sweeping sovereignty claims over the disputed waters.