The United States has vowed to continue sailing more naval warships near disputed islands in the South China Sea, risking escalating tension with China, which has claimed a vast territory in the area.
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China’s Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui summoned US Ambassador Max Baucus today to protest against a U.S. naval patrol close to China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea, Chinese state television said.
“China resolutely opposes any country using freedom of navigation and overflight as a pretext for harming China’s national sovereignty and security interests”, Lu said.
According to CNN report, a US Defense official said that the warship “conducted a transit” within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands on Tuesday morning local time.
According to an unnamed official cited by Reuters, the Lassen was in the area for several hours, marking the start of a series of challenges to China’s territorial claims, and would be accompanied by a US Navy P-8A surveillance plane and possibly a P-3 surveillance plane.
“The United States is conducting routine operations in the South China Sea in accordance with global law”.
US Navy warship USS Lassen sailed near the disputed waters in South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims.
Mr Kirby said that such a challenge to what he called a questionable sovereignty claim was “one of the reasons you have a navy – to be able to exert influence and defend freedom of navigation on worldwide waters”.
The construction activity undertaken by China on its own territory is an internal affair and will not block the legal freedom of other countries, Lu said.
Tuesday’s patrol was a test of Chinese resolve behind its 12-nautical-mile territorial limits around the islands, which have military-length runways.
Satellite images of the islands show that China has reclaimed millions of square meters of land in the Spratlys, known as Nansha in Chinese.
“We operate routinely in the South China Sea and we’ll sail in worldwide waters at a time of our choosing”, another official told AFP news agency.
“If it is true, we advise the U.S.to think twice before its action”, he said, urging them “not to act in an imprudent way and not to make trouble out of nothing”.
In a written statement, Ms Payne said while Australia was not involved in the current exercise, the government strongly supported freedom of navigation, including in the South China Sea.
Security experts have said Washington’s freedom-of-navigation patrols would have to be regular to be effective, given Chinese ambitions to project power deep into maritime Southeast Asia and beyond.
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The decision comes weeks after China’s president Xi Jinping made an official state visit to Washington, and he and USA president Barack Obama discussed rising tensions in the South China Sea, a key impediment to better relations between Beijing and Washington.
