By Prashanth Parameswaran
The United States and China trade barbs over each other’s muscles.
The United States and China have been trading barbs over each other’s ‘strength’ and ‘muscle’ as alarm continues to intensify about Beijing’s massive land reclamation activities in the South China Sea.
U.S. President Barack Obama told a town-hall event in Jamaica last Thursday ahead of a Caribbean summit in Panama that Washington was concerned about China’s neglect of international law and norms in favor of a ‘might makes right’ approach.
“Where we get concerned with China is where it is not necessarily abiding by international norms and rules and is using its sheer size and muscle to force countries into subordinate positions,” Obama said in Jamaica ahead of a Caribbean summit in Panama.
“We think this can be solved diplomatically, but just because the Philippines or Vietnam are not as large as China doesn’t mean that they can just be elbowed aside,” he added.
Read the full story at The Diplomat