China says it has had sovereignty on South China Sea for over 1000 years

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ Refuting United States allegations of building a ‘maritime empire’ in the disputed South China Sea, China on Tuesday claimed its jurisdiction over the vast ocean existed for more than 1,000 years and accused Washington of attempting to sow discord between Beijing and the Southeast Asian countries.

In a major policy speech on Monday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the world will not allow China to treat the strategically important South China Sea (SCS) as its ‘maritime empire’ and vowed to support worried Southeast Asian countries against Beijing’s ‘campaign of bullying’ to control the resource-rich region.

Reacting to Pompeo’s statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a media briefing in Beijing that the secretary of state’s remarks neglected the history and facts about the SCS. His remarks also breaches the US government’s open commitment to not taking position on sovereignty related issues of the SCS, Zhao said.