“This action by the United States threatens China’s sovereignty and security interests and endangers the safety of personnel and facilities on the reef, which is a serious provocation”, Zhang said.
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“There have been naval operations in that region in recent days, and there will be in the weeks and months”, Carter told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing yesterday when asked about news reports that United States warship entered the 12 mile zone of an island in South China Sea which is claimed by China as its territory.
Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui yesterday summoned American Ambassador Max Baucus to protest against the patrol.
“China resolutely opposes any country using freedom of navigation and overflight as a pretext for harming China’s national sovereignty and security interests”, Lu said.
The USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, sailed within 22km of at least one of the man-made land formations claimed by China on Tuesday.
The U.S.is expected to carry out more of the freedom of navigation patrols in what it considers worldwide waters – not only patrolling near Chinese outposts, but ones claimed by other countries, too. As Gordon Lubold of the Wall Street Journal explains, the US did not claim innocent passage for today’s sail-by as that would imply recognition of China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The Australian Anzac-Class frigates HMAS Arunta and HMAS Stuart were scheduled to sail to Zhanjiang, home to China’s South Sea Fleet, to conduct exercises with the People’s Liberation Army Navy next week.
The missile destroyer Lanzhou and cruiser Taizhou of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy sent the warnings to the US ship, Yang said.
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the 22km (12 nautical miles) limit can not be set around man-made islands built on previously submerged reefs. China respects other countries’ freedom of navigation in accordance with worldwide law, observed Mr. Lu.
Tuesday’s sail-past was Washington’s most significant effort to date to demonstrate that China’s manmade islands can not be considered sovereign territory with the right to surrounding territorial waters.
China said two of its vessels had shadowed the USS Lassen.
China insists the work is legal and says it has no intention to militarise the islands.
The Subi reef, which lies close to the Philippines, used to be submerged at high tide before China began a massive dredging project to turn it into an island.
Even before that, however, satellite photographs had shown the construction by China of three military-length airstrips in the Spratlys, including one each on Subi and Mischief reefs.
The Pentagon said that the Lassen completed its patrol without incident.
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“Our freedom of navigation operations do not assert any special US-specific rights”, White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schulz told reporters.
