New Delhi: Ahead of President Donald Trump elaborating on the steps Washington is likely to take against Beijing during the course of his acceptance speech later on Thursday for his re-nomination as the Republican candidate in this year's presidential election, the US State Department imposed visa restrictions on a number of Chinese nationals while the Commerce Department slapped trade sanctions on 24 Chinese enterprises because of China's militarisation of the South China Sea.
"We respect the sovereign rights of all nations, regardless of size, and seek to preserve peace and uphold freedom of the seas in a manner consistent with international law," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
Asserting that US supports a free and open South China Sea, Pompeo said that that the State Department will start imposing visa restrictions on Chinese individuals "responsible for, or complicit in, either the large-scale reclamation, construction, or militarisation of disputed outposts in the South China Sea", or Beijing's "use of coercion against Southeast Asian claimants to inhibit their access to offshore resources."
"These individuals will now be inadmissible into the United States, and their immediate family members may be subject to these visa restrictions as well," he said.
"In addition, the Department of Commerce has added 24 PRC (People's Republic of China) state-owned enterprises to the Entity List, including several subsidiaries of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC)."
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Pompeo went on state that since 2013, China has used its state-owned enterprises to dredge and reclaim more than 3,000 acres on disputed features in the South China Sea, destabilising the region, trampling on the sovereign rights of its neighbours, and causing untold environmental devastation.
"CCCC led the destructive dredging of the PRC's South China Sea outposts and is also one of the leading contractors used by Beijing in its global One Belt One Road (now known as the Belt and Road Initiative or BRI) strategy. CCCC and its subsidiaries have engaged in corruption, predatory financing, environmental destruction, and other abuses across the world."
Referring to China's territorial disputes in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly in the South China Sea region, Pompeo said that Beijing "must not be allowed to use CCCC and other state-owned enterprises as weapons to impose an expansionist agenda."
"The United States will act until we see Beijing discontinue its coercive behaviour in the South China Sea, and we will continue to stand with allies and partners in resisting this destabilizing activity," he said.
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Pompeo's statement comes amid Beijing's hegemonistic approach in the South China Sea where it is involved in territorial disputes with several countries of the region.
This comes even as India and China are involved in a tense border conflict in the Ladakh region earlier this year resulting in the first fatalities along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in 45 years and sparking global concerns.
Last month, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy started naval exercises in the South China Sea through amphibious assault activities.
To counter China's latest activities near the Paracel islands, the US deployed three nuclear-powered aircraft carriers to the South China Sea.
China is locked in disputes over the Spratly and Paracel groups of islands in the South China Sea with other countries of the region.
While the other claimants over the Spratly islands are Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, the Paracel islands are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.
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In 2016, the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled that China violated the Philippines' rights in the South China Sea, one of the busiest commercial shipping routes in the world.
The court accused China of interfering with the Philippines' fishing and petroleum exploration, building artificial islands in the waters and failing to prevent Chinese fishermen from fishing in the zone.
Then again, last month, Vietnam and the Philippines raised concerns over China's repeated violations of maritime laws in the South China Sea.
Separately briefing the media following Pompeo's statement Wednesday, a senior State Department official said that the US has aligned itself strongly with the 2016 international arbitral tribunal ruling on the South China Sea case between China and the Philippines.
The official said that Washington will continue to "strengthen its support for Southeast Asian coastal states in upholding their sovereign rights, and to reflect our deep concern over the increasingly brazen manner in which Beijing has deployed coercive tactics to inhibit other claimants’ access to offshore marine resources."
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"Beijing has pursued environmentally destructive land reclamation and militarisation of disputed outposts. This has done irreparable damage to coral reefs. They have also used these platforms in the South China Sea as platforms of coercion against their neighbours, expanding the reach of PRC maritime militia and civilian law enforcement vessels, often backed by the Chinese military, to intimidate Southeast Asian claimants from accessing offshore resources," the State Department official said.
At the same briefing, a senior Commerce Department official said that the 24 Chinese enterprises have been added to the US’ Entity List because of Beijing’s role in the militarisation of the shoals in the South China Sea.
"The consequences of parties being added to our Entity List is that any item subject to our regulations, which essentially means anything leaving the United States as well as certain items that are made abroad, when they are to be exported, re-exported, or even transferred in-country to a party on the entity list, is a specific license is required," the Commerce Department official said.
"In other words, the party seeking to make that transfer of commodities, equipment, software, or technology to the parties on the entity list has to come into Commerce for a specific licence, which then we review in consultation with the departments of State and Defence and sometimes Energy, and then issue a decision, either an approval or denial."
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During the briefing, the State Department official said that the latest US action against China has been taken "in support of our shared vision of an Indo-Pacific where all countries are secure in their sovereignty and disputes are resolved in accordance with international law."
This will sound like music for New Delhi's ears given the ongoing border conflict with China in eastern Ladakh.
India, along with the US, Japan and Australia, is part of a quad that seeks to work for peace, prosperity and open shipping lines in the Indo-Pacific, a region that stretches from the east coast of Japan to the east coast of Africa, in the wake of China’s growing influence under President Xi Jinping’s expansionist policies.
