“There was an effort made by Chinese ground controllers to reach out to that aircraft and that aircraft continued its mission unabated”.
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The flights, which took off November 8 from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and landed November 9, came amid disagreement between China and several other nations over freedom of navigation rights in the South China Sea, where more than $5 trillion in global trade transits annually.
Speaking to reporters today, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Beijing opposes “the action of undermining China’s sovereignty and security under the pretext of freedom of navigation and overflight”.
Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Indonesia all hold claims to a few or all of the islands.
In a legal setback for Beijing, the arbitration court ruled last month that it had jurisdiction to hear a few territorial claims the Philippines had filed against China.
Beijing has on different occasions asserted its sovereignty over the South China Sea, with Chinese Vice Admiral Yuan Yubai, commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) North Sea Fleet, insisting back in September that the sea belongs to his country.
China has grown increasingly assertive on maritime territorial disputes with South East Asian nations in recent years, with the country claiming most of the South and East China seas as part of its sovereign territory.
The bombers made one pass within 12 nautical miles of the islands, the official said, in what the military refers to as a “freedom of navigation” operation.
Philippines. Mr. Xi dispatched PRC Foreign Minister Wang Yi to the Philippines ahead of his own scheduled visit during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum next week.
Li will attend the 18th leaders’ meeting between China and ASEAN; the 18th ASEAN-China, Japan and Republic of Korea leaders’ meeting; and the 10th East Asia Summit, according to Hong. “This was reflected by China’s deputy military chief, Fan Chang Long, who said China’s presence in the South China Sea was aimed at providing security in our mutual backyard”, Antara news agency quoted Ryamizard as saying on Thursday. That distance was meant to challenge China’s claim of having nautical territory that extends 12 miles out from any of its territories in the South China Sea. The Diplomat’s Ankit Panda concluded that the U.S. FON patrol was not “an assertion of high seas freedom” but rather an innocent passage in compliance provisions of UNCLOS Article 19.
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Sullivan said the tribunal may determine that the most expansive version of China’s nine-dash line assertion is illegitimate, raising the possibility it withdraws the map and resubmits separate claims for maritime features and the entitlements that go with them.
