A guided-missile destroyer, the U.S.S. William P. Lawrence, navigated to within 12 nautical miles of a land feature in the South China Sea known as Fiery Cross Reef, according to a senior defense official.
Advertisement
“The provocative actions by American military ships and planes lay bare the USA designs to seek gain by creating chaos in the region and again testify to the total correctness and utter necessity of China’s construction of defensive facilities on relevant islands”, the statement said.
Lawrence (DDG-110) conducted a freedom of navigation operation past the Chinese installation on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Island chain, according to a U.S. Defense Department statement.
China responded with anger Tuesday morning, with foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang telling a daily news briefing that the ship entered Chinese waters illegally and that the move threatened peace and stability in the region.
The South China Sea is the subject of several rival – and often messy – territorial claims, with China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam disputing sovereignty of several island chains and nearby waters.
In this case, the USA challenged the three countries, but not the Philippines who also lay claim to the islands, because they attempted to restrict the movement of foreign ships pending notification and consent of the claimant country.
“Fiery Cross is sensitive because it is presumed to be the future hub of Chinese military operations in the South China Sea, given its already extensive infrastructure, including its large and deep port and 3,000-meter runway”, said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.
The government is concerned about the recent passage of a US naval vessel through waters surrounding a disputed islet in the South China Sea, and said Wednesday that it is following the matter closely.
With a tough-talking Filipino politician claiming victory in the presidential polls, China today called for a fresh start in ties with Manila amidst their raging row over the disputed South China Sea. “As we have stressed over and over again, China firmly opposes such behavior and we will take necessary measures to safeguard China’s sovereignty and territory”.
Tuesday’s voyage marks the third freedom-of-navigation operation since last fall.
Washington’s chief concern is that China may deploy military aircraft in the disputed Spratly Islands.
Before the arrival of the pair of Chinese fighters, three Chinese warships reportedly shadowed the US destroyer as it made its patrol in and around the reef.
Under the United Nation’s Law of the Sea Convention, the USS William P. Lawrence was exercising legal navigation rights. That was followed by another freedom of navigation voyage in January in the Paracels, a separate island chain in the South China Sea.
Advertisement
It was the latest in a series of similar patrols in the disputed waters in recent months carried out by the United States military. By flaunting the banner of freedom of navigation and flight, the United States has flexed its military muscles by sending warships and military planes close to and even into the related islands and reefs and their surrounding sea and air space for provocation.
