Washington(WA)/New Delhi(DL), August 27 : The US has enforced a visa ban on members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime, Citizens’s Liberation Troops (PLA) & some of the state-run companies accountable for the occupation & militarization of the disputed South China Sea.
In an announcement released by this State Dept. on Wed., Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that from Aug 26 it’s started “enforcing visa constraints on Citizens’s Republic of China (PRC) persons accountable for, (or) complicit in, either the large-scale reclamation, building, (or) militarization of disputed outposts within the South China Sea, (or) the PRC’s utilize of coercion over South-east Asian claimants to inhibit their own accessibility to offshore resources”.
The visa constraints effectively ban the entry of not only the members of the CCP regime, the PLA, however also private persons & companies of the PRC, complicit within the occupation of the South China Sea.
“These persons going to as of now be inadmissible into the United States, & their own immediate family (4) members may be subject to these visa constraints as well,” the State Dept. stated.
In addition, the US Dept. of Commerce has added further 24 PRC state-run enterprises to the Entity List, involving multiple subsidiaries of the China Communications Building Firm (CCCC).
From 2013, the PRC has utilized its state-run enterprises to dredge & rediscover over 3,000 acres on disputed features within the South China Sea, destabilizing the area, trampling on the sovereign rights of its neighbours, & causing untold environmental devastation, the US govt stated.
The CCCC, the State Dept. stated, commanded the destructive dredging of the PRC’s South China Sea outposts & is also one such leading contractors utilized by Beijing in its global ‘1 Belt 1 Road’ strategy.
The US stated that the CCCC & its subsidiaries have involved in corruption, predatory financing, environmental destruction, & different abuses around the globe.
“The PRC mustn’t be permitted to utilize CCCC & different state-run enterprises as weapons to enforce an expansionist agenda,” Pompeo stated in his own announcement.
The US, he alerted, going to act till Washington(WA) has been persuaded that Beijing discontinue its coercive behavior within the South China Sea.
“We’ll continue to stand with allies & partners in resisting this destabilizing activity,” Pompeo stated.
The US supports a free & open South China Sea, he stated, adding that Washington(WA) respects the sovereign rights of all countries, regardless of size, & seeks to preserve peace & uphold freedom of the seas in a way consistent with the Intl. law.
“In Jul, I declared an updated policy about Beijing’s unlawful maritime says within the South China Sea & emphasized that the US has been equipped to take (2) company action to oppose Beijing’s campaign of bullying,” Pompeo added further.