Amid run-ins with Philippines, China says US provoking arms race in South China Sea

BEIJING: The US poses the largest security challenge in the South China Sea as its military deployment there is turning it into "the whirlpool of an arms race", Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong said in remarks published on Sunday.

Recent maritime run-ins between China and the Philippines, a US treaty ally, have made the strategic South China Sea a potential flashpoint between Washington and Beijing.

"At present, the biggest security challenge in the South China Sea comes from outside the region," Sun said in comments published by his ministry, after attending a meeting on East Asian cooperation in Laos.


Sun said US-led forces were "promoting military deployment and actions in the South China Sea, inciting and intensifying maritime disputes and contradictions, and damaging the legitimate rights and interests of coastal countries".

In April, the Philippines said during a meeting with US allies that it was determined to assert its sovereign rights in the South China Sea.