China sent its own naval vessels within 12 nautical miles of the Aleutian Islands as President Barack Obama concluded his recent visit to Alaska, he said.
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WASHINGTON-Republican senators pressed the Pentagon on Thursday to flex United States military muscle by sailing Navy ships within 22 kilometers of artificial islands Beijing is building to assert its territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Asked if this meant going within 12 miles, he answered, referring to the artificial islands: “Depending on the feature”.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mustin on patrol in the South China Sea on June 3, 2015.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it was “extremely concerned” by the comments, and that China was against “any country challenging China’s sovereignty and security in the name of protecting freedom of navigation”.
However, if the US – which does not recognize China’s territorial claims of the artificial islands – conducts a pass within 12 nautical miles of the feature under the innocent passage rules it could tacitly be perceived as a recognition of the territory as sovereign Chinese holdings.
“China has strong historical evidence and legal support to justify our sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters”, Spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular press briefing in response to a USA general’s latest remarks on the South China Sea.
U.S. ships have not sailed within the 12-mile boundary since 2012, said Mr David Shear, assistant secretary of defence for Asian and Pacific security affairs.
Under further questioning, Shear refused to talk about the ongoing deliberations between the Pentagon and the White House, but he said that exercising freedom of navigation around the islands is just one option.
“We obviously have an obligation, and we continue to exercise it, of freedom of navigation and freedom of the seas”, said Kirby, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral.
Adm Harris did not elaborate on where the two other locations are.
After years of being locked in a bitter dispute with Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam, Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli vowed to step up maritime cooperation with members of the Association of South East Nations (ASEAN) at the 12 annual China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning City, China.
‘After all, turning an underwater rock into an airfield simply does not afford the rights of sovereignty or permit restrictions on global air or maritime transit’.
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“It creates a mechanism by which China would have de facto control over the South China Sea in any scenario short of war”, he said. The Chinese ships were returning to base after an exercise in the Bering Sea with their Russian counterparts. They were near there anyway and then they turned south and headed home. I think it was coincidental, but I don’t know that for a fact’.
