On Tuesday the Obama Administration ordered the guided missile destroyer, USS Lassen, to sail through the 12 nautical mile exclusion zone China claims around Subi Reef, one of seven sand and rock outcrops in the Spratly group on which China has built artificial islands.
Advertisement
Jennings said Australia should consider conducting a US-style freedom of navigation mission in the South China Sea “at a few stage”. It asserts a 12-nautical-mile limit around the artificial islands.
Zhang Junshe, a senior researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, said that “increased high-level contacts between the Chinese and USA militaries is a good thing anyway”. It will be the third such video teleconference between the countries’ naval chiefs. Despite Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se’s denial that the South China Sea situation was ever discussed during the summit meeting between President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama, Obama’s remarks at the October 16 joint press conference indicate that the two leaders did talk about the issue. Yang gave no details of China’s claims, and offered no specifics about how Beijing would respond in the future.
Yet since the destroyer USS Lassen never came as close as 500 metres during its patrol, China was able to make only symbolic political gestures, such as protesting, and summoning Max Baucus, the United States ambassador to China, Xue added. “We call on all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from taking actions that could undermine trust and confidence and put at risk the peace and stability of the region”, he told the Brookings Institution think tank.
China is not afraid of fighting a war against the United States in the South China Sea, a state-run newspaper with links to the Communist party has claimed.
“We sail in worldwide waters at a time and place of our choosing”.
“The main goal of the United States is to get more deeply involved in the South China Sea, and is always putting the spotlight on the area when it comes to talking about China on the worldwide stage”.
As reported by The Guardian, China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that relevant authorities monitored, followed and warned the USS Lassen as it “illegally” navigated through the claimed territories without any permission from the Chinese government.
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.
Advertisement
Washington’s action is a risky escalation of already worrisome tensions in the South China Sea. About 30 percent of global trade passes through the South China Sea, which also has rich fishing grounds and a potential wealth of undersea mineral deposits.
