T

he United States has harshly criticized China over issues pertaining to the South China Sea (SCS) as the latter has proceeded to deploy some of the most dangerous weapons from its arsenal to the artificial islands it had illegally built in the disputed waters.

Speaking at the 17th Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) on Saturday, US Defense Secretary James Mattis said the militarization of artificial islands and features, including the deployment of antiship missiles, surface-to-air-missiles, electronic jammers and more recently, bomber aircraft to Woody Island in the South China Sea was intended to intimidate and coerce other claimant states.

China claimed its activities were carried out within its territory and intended to defend its sovereignty.

“Despite China’s claims to the contrary, the placement of these weapon systems is tied directly to military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion,” Mattis said at the SLD, a top Asian security forum that was attended by defense ministers, military chiefs and security experts from 40 countries across the globe.

According to Mattis, these aggressive acts on both the Spratlys and Paracels in the South China Sea were not in line with the promises Chinese President Xi Jinping made during his visit to Washington in 2015.

China claims more than 80 percent of 3.5 million square kilometers of the disputed waters based on a map with the controversial nine-dash line, which clearly violates the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

An international tribunal in The Hague, the Netherlands, ruled in a landmark judgment in 2016 that China’s claims in the South China Sea violated international law, especially UNCLOS, of which China is a signatory.

Just after Mattis’ speech, the Chinese delegation at the SLD hosted a press conference to condemn the US defense chief’s comments.

“Any irresponsible comments from other countries cannot be accepted,” the Chinese military’s Lt. Gen. He Lei said. “As long as it is in your own territory, you can deploy the army and you can deploy weapons.”

In an effort to punish China for its illegal activities in the South China Sea, the US took back an invitation for China to attend this year’s Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise.

“As China’s behavior is inconsistent with the principles and purposes of the RIMPAC exercise — one in which transparency and cooperation are hallmarks,” Mattis said.

Parts of the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which more than US$5 trillion of global trade passes through, is also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Mattis was not alone in calling for rule of law in the region’s security architecture.

On the first day of the SLD on Friday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a rules-based regional architecture and an open and free Indo-Pacific region.

Indonesia, through Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, among others, also showed strong support for a rules-based system.

“Indonesia is for a rules-based regional architecture,” Luhut said on Saturday in Singapore.

Vietnam, the second-biggest claimant of the South China Sea after China, also called for a peaceful resolution in the South China Sea, which it calls the East Sea.

“Regarding the issue of the East Sea, we are consistent with the support for peaceful dispute resolution, on the basis of international laws, including the 1982 UNCLOS,” Vietnam’s Minister of National Defense Gen. Ngo Xuan Lich, said in his speech, also on Saturday.

Gen. Lich also called for the South China Sea Code of Conduct to be immediately finalized as a way to build strategic trust between ASEAN and China.

Ministers from Japan, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries expressed similar views.

In a sign of optimism, Mattis — who will soon visit Beijing — said the doors were not closed to China.

“The US will continue to pursue a constructive results-oriented relationship with China, cooperating when possible and competing vigorously when we must,” Mattis said.