China has issued its strongest warning yet to the USA over an incident during which a United States destroyer sailed within territorial waters of China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea, claiming that U.S. faces running the risk of “a minor incident that sparks war”.
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China’s Vice-Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said China would not accept, nor participate in, any case at the arbitration court.
China’s naval commander Admiral Wu Shengli has told the US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Johnathan Richardson that there may be “a minor incident that sparks war” if the United States continues its “provocative acts” in the South China Sea, the Chinese navy said on Friday.
China has overlapping claims with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei in the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.
(Carter:) “We have said – and we are acting on the basis of saying – that we will fly, sail and operate wherever worldwide law permits”.
The USS Lassen guided missile destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of at least one of the land formations claimed by China in the disputed Spratly Islands chain on Tuesday.
“So, I expect the resolution to be a new modus vivendi where the USA continues its freedom of navigation operations in a very cautious way, and China continues to shadow these patrols to demonstrate its capacity to control the maritime space near its facilities”, Baker concluded.
Despite the tensions, a planned visit to China by U.S. Pacific Command Commander Admiral Harry Harris and U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift remains on track, according to USA officials. And next week, two Australian warships will hold exercises with the Chinese navy in the South China Sea.
“We look forward to the arbitral tribunal’s hearing on the merits of the case”, said Jose.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said the US does not take a position on the competing sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, but it opposes coercion and wants all of the disputes to be resolved “peacefully, diplomatically and through global legal mechanisms such as arbitration”.
China has argued that it is acting lawfully based on its sovereign rights to the disputed areas.
The Philippine government welcomed the decision.
Indeed, Wu said he believed the Chinese and USA navies had plenty of scope for cooperation and should both “play a positive role in maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea”.
UNCLOS does not rule on sovereignty but it does outline a system of territory and economic zones that can be claimed from features such as islands, rocks and reefs.
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The court said it could hear the arguments including one contending that several South China Sea reefs and shoals were not important enough to base territorial claims on. China and the Philippines are among its 117 member countries.
