NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — After contact between Phillipine and Chinese vessels in the South China Sea over the weekend, Kansas U.S. Senator Jerry Moran commented on the general desire of China to expand its influence in recent years.
"The Communist Party of China, which controls the country's government, is interested in superseding the Western world, the free world with their form of government and certainly, their economic system to the huge detriment of America, our economy and, most importantly, our freedoms and liberties," Moran said Monday.
The dispute at sea between the Phillipines and China has prompted the U.S. to call China's actions dangerous and unlawful.
"I don't have any evidence, but I would not at all be surprised, but what China's engagement around the world in creating havoc is increasing now," Moran said. "As we also see in the Middle East, as they see the United States in disarray and uncertain of actions that we would be able to take, this is all, in my view, connected to an effort to change dramatically, the nature of the free world."
A maritime incident in the South China Sea may not seem like an issue for Kansas, but Moran would contend that it is.
"The Phillipines has been outside the realm of U.S. influence for awhile," Moran said. "They've come back, because they're fearful of the threat of China. We need to be helpful, because China is not just interested in the Phillippines, it's interested in the United States of America. This is the primary responsibility of a Congress, of me as a United States Senator, is the national defense of our nation."
On July 12, 2016, the Philippines won the arbitration case it lodged against China after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands invalidated Beijing's nine-dash line claim over the South China Sea. China refused to acknowledge the arbitral ruling.