“This operation was about challenging excessive maritime claims that restrict the rights and freedoms of the United States and others, not about territorial claims to land features”, said Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. The Defense Ministry says the incursion saw Chinese troops on the islands, as well as Chinese Naval vessels and warplanes, take immediate actions to identify and verify the US vessel before demanding it leave.
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The mission was intended “to challenge attempts by the three claimants – China, Taiwan and Vietnam – to restrict navigation rights and freedoms”, Davis said.
The US Navy (USN) Freedom of Navigation (FON) operations, notably the sailing of the DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Lassen past Subi Reef in October 2015, has convinced Chinese military leaders that the deployment of an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea is necessary going forward, he continued.
She urged the United States to respect China’s laws and do more to help maintain regional peace and stability. Their claims do not comply with worldwide law, Davis said, and no permission was sought before the Curtis Wilbur sailed past.
“We will fly, sail and operate wherever worldwide law permits and whenever our operational needs require”, he reportedly said.
Turning a deaf ear to China’s repeated opposition, representation and warning, the United States on Saturday flagrantly dispatched one of its destroyers into 12 nautical miles of an island in the Xisha Islands irrefutably owned by China.
The road map calls on all parties concerned to be included in a mechanism for talks regarding South China Sea affairs, and to cooperate on a variety of issues, such as the conservation and management of biological resources, marine scientific research and crime prevention at sea, the Presidential Office said in a statement Thursday.
Triton Island is near where China conducted oil drilling with a floating, deep-water rig in disputed waters close to Vietnam in July 2014.
“China has established unlawful strait baselines around all the islands – which is illegal”, he said.
“The concern was that, if we looked like we were responding to something the Chinese had done, it would undermine our assertion that this is a matter of worldwide law, and our rights to navigate the seas”, said a US Defense Department official.
“China has taken notice of the relevant report”, the national defense ministry said, adding that China’s determination to safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity in Diaoyu Islands will not falter. It occupies a number of other islets in the South China Sea, including the Pratas island group to the north.
Ma replied with a statement saying that Taiwan has the same goals as the US regarding the situation in the East Vietnam Sea, and hopes for peace, not war, according to Reuters.
“It may cause extremely unsafe consequences”, Yang said.
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The U.S. doesn’t take a position on the territorial disputes over the island.
