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At last year's meeting, Secretary Clinton announced that the US considered the South China Sea dispute a national security issue because of its obligation to guarantee freedom of navigation, according to AP. The US has since held joint naval drills in the area with both the Philippines and Vietnam, CNN reports.
But China says the disputes are bilateral ones and perceives US involvement in the dispute as meddling and provocative. An editorial in China Daily today says that the dispute has been "heating up" since least year's ASEAN summit.
Obviously, the legally binding code of conduct is targeted against China. The United States, the world's only superpower, has long been actively interfering in the South China Sea territorial dispute. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced publicly at the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting last year that the South China Sea dispute was related to US national interests. The dispute has been heating up since then. …
