China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday (March 17) the recent proposal made by U.S. senators was “extremely grating” and showed their “arrogance and ignorance.”
Xiao Jie, the mayor of what China calls Sansha City, said this week that China planned to begin preparatory work this year to build environmental monitoring stations on a number of islands, including the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.
Sansha City is the name China has given to an administrative base for the South China Sea islands and reefs it controls.
U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Ben Cardin introduced the South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act that would ban visas for Chinese people contributing to building development projects in the South and East China seas.
It would also put sanctions on foreign financial bodies that “knowingly conduct or facilitate a significant financial transaction for sanctioned individuals and entities” if China steps up activity at the Scarborough Shoal, among other actions.
(REUTERS)
