blacklisted 24 Chinese companies<\/a> and targeted individuals over construction and military actions in the busy South China Sea waterway.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
On Thursday, a U.S. Navy warship carried out a routine operation near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, something frequently criticized by Beijing as threatening its sovereignty.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In Hawaii, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) wanted Beijing to project power globally via its military.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cTo advance the CCP\u2019s agenda, the People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA) continues to pursue an aggressive modernization plan to achieve a world class military by the middle of the century,\u201d Esper said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will undoubtedly involve the PLA\u2019s provocative behavior in the South and East China Seas, and anywhere else the Chinese government has deemed critical to its interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However, Esper said the United States wanted to \u201chopefully continue to work with the People\u2019s Republic of China to get them back on a trajectory that is more aligned with the international rules based order.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Speaking before a regional tour, Esper described the Indo-Pacific as the epicenter of a \u201cgreat power competition with China.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cWe\u2019re not going to cede this region, an inch of ground if you will, to another country, any other country that thinks their form of government, their views on human rights, their views on sovereignty, their views on freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, all those things, that somehow that\u2019s better than what many of us share.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has repeatedly bashed China over issues including its handling of the coronavirus, a common theme during this week\u2019s Republican National Convention.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In Beijing, China\u2019s Defense Ministry shot back at \u201ccertain U.S. politicians\u201d it said were damaging Sino-U.S. military ties in the run-up to the November election for their own selfish gain, even seeking to create military clashes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThis kind of behavior puts the lives of frontline officers and soldiers on both sides at risk,\u201d spokesman Wu Qian told reporters at a monthly briefing on Thursday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
China is not scared of \u201cprovocation and pressure\u201d from the United States, and will resolutely defend itself and not allow the United States to cause trouble, he added.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope the U.S. side will truly adopt a strategic vision, view China\u2019s development with an open and rational attitude, and leave behind the quagmire of anxiety and entanglement.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The tension has sparked fears of accidental conflict.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A U.S. defense official told Reuters on Wednesday that China had launched four medium-range ballistic missiles that hit the South China Sea between Hainan Island and the Paracel Islands.<\/p>\n
gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Ben Blanchard Aug 27 (Reuters) \u2013 The United States and China traded jibes as military tensions grow between the world\u2019s two largest economies, with the U.S. defense chief vowing not to \u201ccede an inch\u201d in the Pacific and China saying Washington was risking soldiers\u2019 lives. Both are at loggerheads over issues from technology and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[95,10606,4854,468,2221,10607],"class_list":["post-16441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-china","tag-jibes","tag-military","tag-tensions","tag-trade","tag-worsen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/16442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}