America’s deployment of destroyers means that China’s leadership is bound to come under tremendous pressure to respond accordingly.
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Navy officials had said the sail-past was necessary to assert the United States position that China’s manmade islands can not be considered sovereign territory with the right to surrounding waters.
“This is something that will be a regular occurrence, not a one-off event”, said the official.
The expert explains that while growing fear of regional states in the face of China’s island-building campaign helped get the operation green-lighted by the White House, such a move is not as unique as most would believe, “and it is not singling out China”.
The USS Lassen passed within 12 nautical miles – the normal limit of territorial waters around natural land – of at least one of the formations Beijing claims in the South China Sea. He said the administration might have just wanted to “let our actions do the talking for us”.
Washington has repeatedly said it does not recognise Chinese claims to territorial waters around the artificial islands.
The USS Lassen operation was part of America’s Freedom of Navigation programme to challenge “excessive claims” in the world’s oceans and airspace, and was welcomed by several countries in the region, including the Philippines and Japan.
The decision to go ahead with the patrol follows months of deliberation and risks upsetting strained ties with China.
Last night, the Chinese navy warned that further forays by the USA naval vessel into the waters claimed by China in the South China Sea might “trigger eventualities”. But despite the Chinese rhetoric, analysts said more such United States manoeuvres could be expected.
Under his South China Sea peace initiative, Massachusetts said that the ROC, upholding the basic principles of “safeguarding sovereignty, shelving disputes, pursuing peace and reciprocity, and promoting joint development”, is willing to exploit resources in the South China Sea in cooperation with the other parties concerned.
He did not comment further.
Maritime law does not rule on ownership by a country of islands built on previously submerged reefs.
Dr. Nong Hong, Director of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy at the China-based National Institute for South China Sea Studies (NISCSS), shares a similar view.
“I can’t speak for China and what they interpreted it as or not”.
During his intimate retreat with President Barack Obama back in 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping boldly claimed, “The vast Pacific Ocean has enough space for two large countries like the United States and China”.
Even before that, however, satellite photographs had shown the construction of three military-length airstrips by China in the Spratlys, including one each on Subi and Mischief reefs.
Tensions flared between China and the USA after an American warship sailed to close to disputed islands.
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In the latest act, the U.S. sent its destroyer the USS Lassen within 12 nautical miles of small artificial islands in the South China Sea that Beijing recently built on reefs despite competing claims from its neighbours, including Washington’s ally Manila.
