“This operation challenged attempts by the three claimants – China, Taiwan and Vietnam – to restrict navigation rights and freedoms”, Davis said.
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Renewing the tension will also showcase support for countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam, encouraging them to take more provocative actions against China on the South China Sea, Zhang said. “A U.S. warship conducted a patrol Saturday around an island in the South China Sea claimed by China and two of its neighbors, another in a series of operations meant to challenge Beijing’s maritime and territorial claims in the region”, the daily said.
The USS Curtis Wilbur, a guided missile destroyer, violated China’s laws by intruding into Chinese territorial waters, the ministry’s spokesman Yang Yujun said in a written statement issued on Saturday night.
“Its essence is to push the United States’ maritime hegemony in the name of freedom of navigation, which has always been resolutely opposed by most of the worldwide community, especially certain developing nations”.
In Beijing, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman said the USA destroyed peace and stability in the South China Sea with its maritime exercise, the second by an American warship in the area since October.
Port facilities, air strips and military buildings have gone up on the built-out islands, prompting U.S. warnings that it would assert its rights to “fly, sail and operate wherever global law allows”.
In a statement on Saturday, Mr. McCain said he was “encouraged” by the news.
In October, USS Lassen (DDG-84) conducted a FON op past a Chinese installation on an artificial island on Subi Reef in the Spratly Island chain.
“China still wants to be seen in the worldwide community as being reasonable; it is not in its interests to have confrontations with the US”, Xu said.
“It is important to recognise that all states have a right under global law to freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight, including in the South China Sea”.
File picture shows the US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur patrolling in the Philippine Sea.
According to Yang, Chinese troops on the islands and Navy vessels and warplanes took actions immediately.
As is customary in such operations, no other countries were notified in advance, Wright said.
China on Monday accused the United States of being the biggest incentive for militarization of the South China Sea, and urged it to stop creating tension in the name of “navigational freedom”.
During his visit, Ma said Taiwan would use Taiping Island as the starting point for implementation of his South China Sea Peace Initiative by transforming Taiping into “an island for peace and rescue operations, as well as an ecologically friendly and low-carbon island”.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Foreign Ministry also came out with a separate statement, calling on the U.S. to respect and abide by China’s laws, and not to undermine the mutual trust and regional peace and stability.
The trip near Triton Island, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, is what the Pentagon calls a “freedom of navigation operation”.
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The US has said that China’s construction has led to militarization of the region, and threatens free access to its waters and airspace.
