A US defense official said the Lassen also went within 12-mile limits of features in the disputed sea claimed by Vietnam and USA treaty ally, the Philippines.
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The USA destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef, one of seven artificial islands built up by China in the past year.
But US Defence Department spokesman Cdr Bill Urban said: “The United States is conducting routine operations in the South China Sea in accordance with worldwide law”.
US Defence Secretary Ash Carter confirmed Tuesday’s patrol while testifying to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
China shooed the USS Lassen out of its territory in the South China Sea on Tuesday.
“China will do whatever necessary to oppose deliberate provocation from any country”, Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency late Tuesday, after summoning US Ambassador Max Baucus. Thirty percent of global trade moves through the South China Sea’s shipping lanes, including Middle Eastern oil vital to the Chinese economy.
During that meeting the Chinese premier stated that China did not wish to pursue “militarisation” in the South China Sea. That same month, the USS Fort Worth, a littoral combat ship, “encountered multiple” Chinese warships during a patrol in the Spratly archipelago, the U.S. Navy said at the time. Beijing has always been accused of dragging its feet on the CoC as it continues its assertive behavior in the South China Sea.
However, a USA defense official said the mission had been completed “without incident”.
Both Subi and Mischief Reefs were submerged at high tide before China began a massive dredging project to turn them into islands in 2014. In UNCLOS (UN Convention on the Law of the Sea) man-made islands built on previously submerged reefs will never be under 12-nautical mile limit, The Guardian reported.
Widodo, who met President Barack Obama on Monday, did not directly refer to the US action. The region is widely considered as worldwide waters but Beijing claims large parts of the South China Sea.
Peter Jennings, the executive director of the government-backed security think-tank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said he expected most U.S. regional allies would follow with their own exercises to assert freedom of navigation, although few would telegraph movements in advance for operational security reasons.
The patrol marks the most serious USA challenge to China’s claim of territorial sovereignty around the islands.
Australia has two naval frigates in the South China Sea region – the HMAS Arunta and HMAS Stuart – which have been scheduled to carry out exercises alongside Chinese warships over the next week, as a naval confidence-building exercise. Or Obama’s steely-eyed projection of American power?
The guided missile destroyer Lanzhou and the patrol vessel Taizhou will enforce China’s sovereignty on the area, the People’s Daily reports.
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Kirby refused to respond to the Chinese allegations of a provocative behaviour from the US. “China will not condone any action that undermines China’s security”. Public sentiment strongly favors China displaying its military superiority in the face of defiant acts by rival claimants, especially the Philippines and Vietnam, although Beijing has so far shied away from military escalation. The Indonesian president is on his inaugural visit to the United States which has been cut short due to the haze crisis from raging forest fires back home (See: “Exclusive: U.S., Indonesia to Strengthen Partnership During Jokowi Visit”).
