(UPDATE) WASHINGTON: A senior United States Department of State official said Washington will oppose any attempt to block US access to the South China Sea.
'We expect to be in the South China Sea as we have been,' Amy Archibald, State Department director of the Office of the Maritime Southeast Asia, told visiting Filipino journalists on Wednesday.
This file photo taken on May 14, 2019 shows a Philippines' coast guard ship (R) sailing past a Chinese coast guard ship during a joint search and rescue exercise between the Philippines and US coast guards near Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. - The Scarborough Shoal fishing ground, tapped by generations of Filipino fishermen, is one of many potential flashpoints for military conflict over the South China Sea. China and Taiwan both claim sovereignty over almost the entire sea, while the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei have competing claims to parts of it. (Photo by Ted ALJIBE / AFP) / TO GO WITH China-Xi-congress-Philippines-fishing, FOCUS by Allison JACKSON
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