Vice President Kamala Harris called on Vietnam to join the U.S. to challenge China’s “bullying” in the South China Sea, a continuation of her sharp rhetoric against Beijing as she tours Southeast Asia this week.
“We need to find ways to pressure and raise the pressure, frankly, on Beijing to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to challenge its bullying and excessive maritime claims,” she said, in remarks at the opening of a bilateral meeting with Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
China launched an ambitious mission on Tuesday to bring back rocks and debris from the moon’s surface for the first time in more than 40 years — an undertaking that could boost human understanding of the moon and of the solar system more generally.
The Trump administration said Wednesday it is imposing sanctions on Chinese officials responsible for Beijing’s military build-up in the South China Sea. The move is the latest salvo in the U.S. pressure campaign against China that has picked up steam ahead of November’s presidential election over a variety of contentious issues.
Mysterious, unsolicited packets of seeds possibly from China are arriving in some Southern California mailboxes, prompting state officials to urge recipients to refrain from planting them. The California Department of Agriculture is aware of the packets and has been in contact with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to determine what action, if any, is necessary for shipments arriving in California, spokesman Steve Lyle said Monday.