US slams China garrison in disputed Spratlys - The Philippine Star » News » Headlines
The US Senate approved a resolution late Thursday that “strongly urges” all regional nations to exercise self-restraint and to refrain from permanently inhabiting points in the South China Sea until a code of conduct is reached.
The resolution, sponsored by senators from both parties, declared that the US was committed “to assist the nations of Southeast Asia to remain strong and independent.”
At the US House of Representatives, Rep. Eni Faleomavaega has introduced a bill calling for peaceful and collaborative resolution of maritime territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea and South China Sea and its environs and other maritime areas adjacent to the East Asian mainland, a press statement from his office said.
Democrat Faleomavaega has been representing the territory of American Samoa in the US Congress since 1989 and is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.
Earlier this year, Florida Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced a resolution also calling for a peaceful resolution of the South China Sea dispute.
“We re-introduced this legislation as a bill, rather than a resolution, to show how serious this matter is to us,” said Faleomavaega, original co-sponsor of Ros-Lehtinen’s resolution.
He said the bill was in response to protracted tension in the region.
“China continues to coerce and intimidate its neighbors, and I have grave concerns about China’s expansive territorial claims, which have no basis in international law,” he said in a statement on Friday.
He said China’s establishment of a prefecture-level government in the city of Sansha to oversee areas claimed by Beijing was a provocative action.