China says U.S. move into South China Sea is provoking arms race

Beijing: America is world’s biggest security challenge South China Sea China’s military deployment in the South China Sea is turning it into a “vortex of an arms race”, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong said in comments published on Sunday (June 9).

China and FilipinoChina, a U.S. treaty ally, makes the strategically important South China Sea a potential flashpoint between Washington and Beijing.

“Currently, the biggest security challenge in the South China Sea comes from outside the region,” Sun Zhengcai said in comments published by his foreign ministry after attending a high-level meeting on East Asian cooperation in Laos.

Sun Chunlan said that forces led by the United States “are promoting military deployments and operations in the South China Sea, inciting and intensifying maritime disputes and conflicts, and undermining the legitimate rights and interests of coastal countries.”

Sun Chunlan said that the US move to deploy medium-range missile systems in the region “is dragging the region into the vortex of arms race and plunging the entire Asia-Pacific region into the shadow of geopolitical conflict.”