In a statement reflecting the seriousness of the situation between Washington and Beijing, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced that his country is preparing its forces across Asia for a possible confrontation with China.
The Wall Street Journal, a US daily newpaper, quoted Esper as saying yesterday, that the United States is equipping and repositioning its forces throughout Asia, in preparation for a possible confrontation with China.
The newspaper pointed out that Esper stressed in a video address from the Pentagon, in Washington, to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, that his country may clash with China later.
The newspaper presented the statements of the US Defense Secretary, noting that it "summarizes the military component of the Trump administration's hard line stance towards Beijing.
The Wall street Journal confirmed that Esper stressed that his country will continue to send warships to the region to counter China's expansionist policies and sell weapons to Taiwan, which demands Beijing sovereignty on it.
The US Secretary of Defense had confirmed during a news conference via the Internet that the United States "will continue to be in the South China Sea, and to send aircraft carriers there to conduct training, and no one can stop it."
Esper stressed the issue of free navigation in the waters of the region.
He noted that his country wanted to confront the compulsive behavior of the Chinese in the South China Sea.
He affirmed that the US wants to secure free navigation there. You know that 80% of global trade passes through the Pacific and Indian regions, especially across the South China Sea, so US wants to make sure that there is free, open and secure navigation, otherwise international trade will be severely affected.
The US Secretary of Defense also called for the necessity for his country's partners in South Asia to defend their territorial waters, and for China to respect the sovereignty of countries in the region.
Esper challenged China, noting that for American aircraft carriers, they have been sent to the South China Sea since World War II, and we will continue to be present and no one will stop us. He went on to say that the US will continue to conduct exercises there.
US President Donald Trump attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for inviting her several weeks ago to visit the "Chinese city" of San Francisco despite an outbreak of the Coronavirus, calling it crazy.
Trump posted on his account "Twitter," a video documenting Pelosi's remarks on February 24, saying that being in the "Chinese city" is safe given the precautionary measures taken.
Trump commented on the video, writing: "Crazy Nancy Pelosi deleted this clip from her Twitter account. She wanted everyone to crowd into the Chinese city after it closed the border with China.
The US president, attacking the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives who was one of the biggest supporters of the failed initiative to isolate him, added: "She bears, based on her statements, the responsibility for the death of many people. She is an unqualified third-degree politician!"
Pelosi's office previously reported that her comments came a day before the announcement of the closure of the Chinese city in San Francisco, the first measure of its kind in the United States.
Pelosi has been a third victim of Trump's recent accusations of taking responsibility for the epidemiological situation in the United States, which is the world's first country in terms of infections and deaths from the emerging Coronavirus.
Trump also criticized China, accusing it of misleading the international community about the start of the outbreak of the virus, as well as the World Health Organization ( WHO) which is accused by him of siding with the Chinese in its actions and providing wrong information to the United States. As a result, the American president announced recently that USA will stop funding this international institution.
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