The U.S. Navy destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of the contested Triton Island in the Paracel Islands on Saturday in a bid to counter “excessive maritime claims”, said spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis.
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“The U.S. warship violated Chinese law and entered China’ s territorial sea without authorization”.
The US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen, in the South Cina Sea. The US takes no position on competing sovereignty claims between the parties to naturally-formed land features in the South China Sea, Urban reiterated.
Both Hua and Yang cited China’s 1992 law, which requires a foreign warship – no matter its posture – prior notification before entering its claimed territorial waters.
A USA missile destroyer passed close to a tiny disputed island in the South China Sea late on Friday in the Pentagon’s latest assertion of US naval freedom despite growing territorial feuds there.
No prior notice of the USA vessel’s transit was given to China or any other regional authorities, “which is consistent with our normal process and worldwide law”, the Pentagon spokesman said. “The worldwide community has also been using it and sharing it as a maritime corridor”, Batongbacal said. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Le Hai Binh also reiterated Vietnam’s “indisputable sovereignty over Hoang Sa [Paracel] as well as Truong Sa [Spratly] archipelagoes”. “At a time when the whole world is pursuing peace, development, cooperation and win-win results, China will firmly stick to its path of peaceful development, which serves its fundamental interests and meets the common aspiration of all countries and people in the region”.
It asserted that freedom of navigation and overflights in the South China Sea has never been, and would not be, a problem. And in December, two US bombers flew into the airspace over a Chinese-controlled island and reef in the same waters.
Yang described the act as “unprofessional and irresponsible”, and said it “severely violated Chinese law, sabotaged the peace, security and good order of the waters, and undermined the region’s peace and stability”.
The defense minister emphasized that Australia has been depending on maritime trade in the South China Sea for a long time with 60 percent of the country’s exports passing through the global waterway.
“China has always said that with freedoms of navigation and overflight, it only disputes the right of the United States to conduct military activities, particularly certain types of intelligence collection and military data gathering (so-called “military surveys”) in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ)”, he adds.
Ma said the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague held a hearing on a case brought by the Philippines against China in November 2015 during which a lawyer for the Philippines argued that Taiping was not an island, but a rock that can not support human habitation.
The operation lasted about three hours, the USA defense official said, declining to provide more specifics.
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China has characterized such actions as an attempt to militarize the South China Sea, and has said USA shows of force may prompt it to accelerate construction on man-made islands. “As we continue down the path of freedom of navigations, you will see more of them, and you will see them increasing in complexity and scope in areas of challenge”, he said.
