China late on Wednesday slammed a video shared on social media by the US embassy in Singapore that criticizes Beijing’s South China Sea claims, comparing them to the actions of an inconsiderate neighbor who intrudes on others’ space.
The roughly 90-second video shows a government-built apartment block inundated with clutter, voiced over in a Singaporean accent.
“This happens right outside Singapore’s doorstep, too, in the South China Sea, where one neighbor thinks he owns basically everything,” the narrator says, as the video cuts to a series of news clippings on China’s territorial disputes.
Photo: AFP
The post sparked a strident reaction from China’s embassy in Singapore.
On Facebook, the Chinese embassy said the video “deliberately distorts the ins-and-outs of the South China Sea issue.”
“Under joint efforts of China and ASEAN countries, the current situation in the South China Sea remains overall stable,” it added.
The embassy said it was “universally recognized that the US is the least qualified to even talk about international law,” adding that the US was “bullying and coercing other countries” on issues such as tariffs, and wanting control of the Panama Canal and Greenland.
In response to media queries, a US embassy spokesperson justified the social media post and said that the embassy presents US government policy and views on issues that affect itself and the entire region.
“Drawing an analogy to the local Singapore context, the video explains the US understanding of the dispute by referencing a phenomenon to which anyone around the world can relate,” the spokesperson said.
Beijing claims almost the entire disputed waterway, through which more than 60 percent of global maritime trade passes, despite an international ruling that its assertion has no merit.
Taiwan, as well as Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have partial claims to the sea.
The Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that it “rejects attempts by foreign embassies to incite domestic reactions to international issues involving third countries.”
“Complex issues are best resolved through appropriate channels for effective diplomacy,” it said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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