Prompting anger in Beijing which denounced the patrol as illegal and a threat to peace and stability, a U.S. navy warship sailed close to a disputed reef in the South China Sea on Tuesday, a U.S. Department of Defense official said.

Defense Department spokesman Bill Urban said that guided missile destroyer the USS William P. Lawrence traveled within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef.

China, Taiwan, and Vietnam were seeking to restrict navigation rights in the South China Sea and the so-called freedom of navigation operation was undertaken to “challenge excessive maritime claims”, he said.

“These excessive maritime claims are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention in that they purport to restrict the navigation rights that the United States and all states are entitled to exercise,” Urban said in an emailed statement.

As China undertakes large-scale land reclamations and construction on disputed features while the United States has increased its patrols and exercises in the region, Beijing and Washington have traded accusations that the other is militarizing the South China Sea.

Washington is concerned China will use a 3,000-metre (10,000-foot) runway on Fiery Cross Reef to press its extensive territorial claims at the expense of weaker rivals.

The U.S. ship illegally entered Chinese waters and was tracked and warned, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.

“This action by the U.S. side threatened China’s sovereignty and security interests, endangered the staff and facilities on the reef, and damaged regional peace and stability,” he told a daily news briefing.

Most of South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year is claimed by China. There are also overlapping claims by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

After Beijing used a military plane to evacuate sick workers from Fiery Cross, the

Pentagon last month called on China to reaffirm it has no plans to deploy military aircraft in the disputed Spratly Islands.

“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 3000-metre runway,” said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.

“The timing is interesting, too. It is a show of U.S. determination ahead of President Obama’s trip to Vietnam later this month,” Storey added.

Freedom of navigation operations were important for smaller nations, said Daniel Russel, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific while speaking in Hanoi ahead of Obama’s visit.

“If the world’s most powerful navy cannot sail where international law permits, then what happens to the ships of navy of smaller countries? If our warships can’t exercise its legitimate rights under international law at sea, then what about the fishermen, what about the cargo ships? How will they prevent themselves from being blocked by stronger nations?,” Russel told reporters before news of the operation was made public.

There have been strong reactions from China to two previous U.S. freedom of navigation operations which included the one when long-range U.S. bombers flew near Chinese facilities under construction on Cuarteron Reef in the Spratlys last November and the overflight of fighter planes near the disputed Scarborough Shoal last month.

(Adapted from Reuters)

Categories: Geopolitics