US slams Chinese ‘nature reserve’ as effort to claim South China Sea

The US State Department has accused China of attempting to deny Filipino vessels access to fishing grounds in the contested area.The United States has slammed China over a territorial dispute with the Philippines in the China-sea" class="entity-link entity-location" data-entity-id="8346" data-entity-type="location">South China Sea, a key maritime region that has emerged as a flash point for questions of regional sovereignty.In a statement on Saturday, the US State Department said China was seeking to deny Filipino fishermen access to the area surrounding the Scarborough Reef, near the island of Luzon.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3China puts the ‘squeeze’ on Taiwan with new maritime patrolslist 2 of 3Philippines accuses China of using water cannon on vessels for second daylist 3 of 3Rubio says US, China must ‘work through’ big differences at ASEAN meetingend of listIt also rejected China’s claims that the area constituted a “nature reserve”, dismissing the assertion as a bid by Beijing to advance its territorial ambitions.“The United States rejects China’s ongoing attempts to enforce its destabilizing ‘national nature reserve’ at Scarborough Reef and deny Filipino fishermen access to their traditional fishing ground,” the statement reads.“This is yet another unilateral attempt by China to use dubious environmental and legal pretexts, backed by coercion, to advance its sweeping territorial and maritime claims in the China-sea" class="entity-link entity-location" data-entity-id="8346" data-entity-type="location">South China Sea at the expense of its neighbors.”The statement concluded with a line that the US “stands with our Ally, the Philippines, in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific”.In recent weeks, tensions have flared in the China-sea" class="entity-link entity-location" data-entity-id="8346" data-entity-type="location">South China Sea, after Chinese ships fired water cannon on Filipino fishing vessels near the Scarborough Shoal.The area has been claimed by both China and the Philippines as each country’s sovereign territory, in a decades-long dispute.The Philippines has brought its case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which largely dismissed China’s sweeping claims to the area as unlawful under international maritime law.