In the joint statement they released on Saturday after their Trilateral "Indo-Pacific" Dialogue, the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea expressed concerns over what they alleged was China's "dangerous and escalatory behavior" supporting its "unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea".

While pointing accusatory fingers at China for attempts to change the status quo by force and coercion — including implying that it is China rather than the US that is responsible for jeopardizing peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait — they rather tellingly offered testimony that this is a charge that should be laid at their doors.

By?reiterating their shared commitment to "maritime security and law enforcement cooperation" including the freedom of navigation and overflight operations which are nothing more than an excuse for their provocative military posturing in the waters, they made it crystal clear that it is they that are guilty of trying to use coercion to impose the US' notion of what the regional status quo should be — one in which China's development over the past 40-plus years never happened.

The US has constantly sought to exploit the maritime disputes in the South China Sea, which are bilateral issues between China and a few Southeast Asian countries, as a means to consolidate its various alliances and cliques, including the one with Japan and the ROK, in order to sow the seeds of division between China and its neighbors. Its aim is to make regional countries part of the armored ring fence it is trying to build around China in order to contain it. It is not China that is guilty of so-called escalatory behavior, but the US.

At present, the greatest challenge to peace and stability in the South China Sea comes from Washington's encouragement of Manila's provocations regarding Ren'ai Reef and its collusion with pro-independence forces on Taiwan island. With the island holding its local leadership election later this month, the US apparently wants to send a supportive message with its allies to disruptive-minded, pro-independence candidates. It is the US' continuous flexing of the muscles of its alliance system and its inciting of cross-Strait tensions that are disturbing the peace and stability fostered through the concerted efforts of countries in the region.

As Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said of the trilateral statement, it exposes the US' attempts to cobble together exclusionary groupings in the name of cooperation, its gross interference in China's internal affairs, and its smearing of China with the aim of stoking confrontation and antagonism.

As she said, the Asia-Pacific region should not be a chessboard for geopolitical contests. The US' regional allies should recognize the dangers inherent in the Cold War dry rot that has damaged mental faculties in Washington, and cease to fuel tensions in the region by following its demented lead.