US urges China to stop harassing vessels in South China Sea

The United States has called on China to “cease its routine harassment” of vessels of other countries with claims in the South China Sea, reaffirming its support for a 2016 arbitration ruling, which China said on Wednesday it does not recognize.
The ruling handed down by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague seven years ago concluded that Beijing’s claim to almost the entire South China Sea, where about $3 trillion worth of sea-borne goods pass every year, was groundless.