Current Events > The US finally calls South China Sea expansion illegal

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China's pursuit of offshore resources in parts of the South China Sea is "completely unlawful", US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.

Mr Pompeo said he wanted to make clear that Beijing's "campaign of bullying to control" the disputed waters was wrong.
China claims a large part of the region, and has been building military bases on artificial islands there.

But Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam have overlapping claims to the islands and reefs.

Four years after an international tribunal in The Hague ruled that China's claims in the region have no legal basis, the US has for the first time officially made its stance clear.