Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford (C) says "collective action" is needed to counter China's militarization of the South China Sea
AFP: Xi broke promise on South China Sea: Top US general
The US military's top general said Wednesday that Chinese President Xi Jingping reneged on promises not to militarize the South China Sea and called for "collective action" to hold Beijing responsible.
General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he was not calling for military action, but stressed that there was a need to enforce international laws.
"The fall of 2016, President Xi Jinping promised President Obama that they would not militarize the islands. So what we see today are 10,000-foot runways, ammunition storage facilities, routine deployment of missile defense capabilities, aviation capabilities, and so forth," he said in a talk on US security and defense at the Brooking institution.
"So clearly they have walked away from that committment."
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Update: Top US military official says Beijing achieving immediate South China Sea goals, but further moves should be challenged (SCMP).
WNU Editor: Sadly .... my commentary in this 2015 post has been proven right .... The U.S. Retreats From The South China Sea (December 1, 2015). Beijing did sense a lack of focus from the White House at this time. Made promises that they were never going to respect, and then took advantage of it. Flash forward to today. The problem is bigger, and it is not President Trump's problem.