“China has taken advantage of the United States for many years. Those days are over,” he told delegates gathered on a cruise liner docked in Port Moresby’s Fairfax Harbour.
He also took aim at China’s territorial ambitions in the Pacific and, particularly, Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative to expand land and sea links between Asia, Africa and Europe with billions of dollars in infrastructure investment.
“We don’t offer constricting belts or a one-way road,” said Pence.
While not referring directly to Chinese claims over various disputed waters in the region, Pence said the United States would work to help protect maritime rights.
“We will continue to fly and sail where ever international law allows and our interests demand. Harassment will only strengthen our resolve.”
Just minutes earlier, Xi had spoken at length about his initiative and the need for free trade across the region.
“It is not an exclusive club closed to non-members, nor is it a trap as some people have labeled it,” Xi said of his brainchild project.
He also called protectionism a “shortsighted approach” that was “doomed to fail”.
“History has shown that confrontation, whether in the form of a Cold War, hot war, or trade war will produce no winners,” said Xi.
