Chinese Paper Calls Tillerson’s South Sea Threat ‘Foolish’
- State media hit back at secretary of state pick’s tough talk
- Editorials offer more pointed response than government
China Pushes Back Against Tillerson
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China’s state media rebuffed a suggestion by President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state that Beijing must be denied access to reclaimed reefs in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.
“Unless Washington plans to wage a large-scale war in the South China Sea, any other approaches to prevent China access to the islands will be foolish,” the Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper wrote in an editorial. The English-language China Daily took a similar line: “It is certainly no small matter for a man intended to be the U.S. diplomat in chief to display such undisguised animosity toward China.”