WASHINGTON (AP)– The Biden administration on Sunday upheld a Trump-era rejection of nearly all of Chinas substantial maritime claims in the South China Sea. The administration also warned China that any attack on the Philippines in the flashpoint area would draw a U.S. response under a mutual defense treaty.The stern message from Secretary of State Antony Blinken can be found in a declaration released ahead of this weeks 5th anniversary of a worldwide tribunals judgment in favor of the Philippines, versus Chinas maritime claims around the Spratly Islands and neighboring reefs and shoals. China declines the ruling. Ahead of the 4th anniversary of the judgment last year, the Trump administration came out in favor of the judgment but likewise said it considered as illegitimate virtually all Chinese maritime claims in the South China Sea outside Chinas internationally acknowledged waters. Sundays declaration declares that position, which had been set out by Trumps secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.”Nowhere is the rules-based maritime order under greater threat than in the South China Sea,” Blinken stated, using language similar to Pompeos. He implicated China of continuing “to persuade and daunt Southeast Asian coastal states, threatening freedom of navigation in this important international throughway.””The United States reaffirms its July 13, 2020 policy concerning maritime claims in the South China Sea,” he said, referring to Pompeos original statement. “We likewise declare that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or airplane in the South China Sea would conjure up U.S. mutual defense commitments.”Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty obliges both countries to come to each others help in case of an attack.Prior to Pompeos declaration, U.S. policy had been to insist that maritime conflicts in between China and its smaller next-door neighbors be solved peacefully through U.N.-backed arbitration. The shift did not use to disputes over land features that are above water level, which are thought about to be “territorial” in nature.Although the U.S. continues to remain neutral in territorial conflicts, it has successfully sided with the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, all of which oppose Chinese assertions of sovereignty over maritime areas surrounding objected to South China Sea islands, reefs and shoals.China reacted madly to the Trump administrations statement and is likely to be similarly irked by the Biden administrations decision to retain and enhance it.”We get in touch with (China) to comply with its commitments under global law, stop its provocative behavior, and take actions to assure the worldwide community that it is devoted to the rules-based maritime order that appreciates the rights of all nations, big and small,” Blinken stated in the statement, China has actually declined the tribunals choice, which it has actually dismissed as a “sham,” and has actually refused to take part in arbitration procedures. It has actually continued to defy the decision with aggressive actions that have brought it into territorial spats with Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia in current years.As in 2015s declaration did, Sundays announcement came amid heightened stress in between the U.S. and China over various issues, including the coronavirus pandemic, human rights, Chinese policy in Hong Kong and Tibet and trade, that have actually sent relations plummeting.China claims almost all of the South China Sea and consistently items to any action by the U.S. military in the area. Five other federal governments claim all or part of the sea, through which roughly $5 trillion in goods are shipped every year.China has actually looked for to fortify its claims to the sea by building military bases on coral atolls, leading the U.S. to sail its warships through the region on what it calls flexibility of operation objectives. The United States has no claims itself to the waters but has actually released warships and aircraft for years to patrol and promote liberty of navigation and overflight in the busy waterway.