China meets with Asean diplomats to propose resuming South China Sea talks

A People’s Liberation Army vessel firing cannons and torpedoes in a drill in the South China Sea earlier this month. - South China Morning Post

HONG KONG, Aug 24 (SCMP): Three weeks after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced his country’s new position on the South China Sea, Beijing called diplomats from 10 South-East Asian countries together for a meeting to convey its worries about the rising risk for conflict over the contested waters.

During the meeting in Beijing in early August, a Chinese official in charge of maritime and boundary affairs expressed Beijing’s concerns for the “high risk” from military activities by “non-regional countries”, phrasing China often uses when discussing the US role in Asia.