China is pushing for a code of conduct with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which it sees as a way to manage the South China Sea disputes without intervention by the US and other countries. Following Pompeo’s statement that most of Beijing’s claims in South China Sea are ‘illegal’,  some Asean parties may feel more “emboldened to push their respective agendas on the South China Sea in the negotiations with Beijing,” said Collin Koh, a Research Fellow at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.