China: Will respond to US ships with all necessary means

The chiefs of the USN and PLAN were scheduled to hold a teleconference to discuss the issue.

A Chinese guided-missile destroyer and a naval patrol ship shadowed and gave warnings to the US warship “according to law”, China’s Defense Ministry said.

Chinese officials are concerned over assertions by United States officials that Washington will send more ships through the area, challenging Beijing’s claims of sovereignty.

In the first such operation of its kind since 2012, the U.S. warship, the USS Lassen, sailed by an island in the Spratlys that China claims.

An intense, prolonged internal US debate over the patrol revealed by Reuters’ reporting appears to contradict Washington’s insistence that it was simply another routine freedom-of-navigation operation.

The Chinese government has also acted. We hope U.S. will not take action that will back fire. “Nothing has been cancelled”, said the official. While offering no details, Zhang said Tuesday’s “provocative” maneuver also placed personnel and infrastructure on the island in jeopardy.

“There are no territorial limits”. Efforts to restrict freedom of navigation should be strongly protested.

“There is a balance of power, an enforcement of rules”.

Other countries such as the Philippines, long overwhelmed by Chinese assertiveness on its maritime fringes, applauded the US FON mission.

The importance of continued free navigation in the South China Sea is obvious, but two points are relevant. Today, the American ambassador in Beijing was called and told that the U.S. had threatened China’s sovereignty. “Approximately sixty percent of Australia’s exports pass through the South China Sea”. “It’s hard to see either side backing down”.

However, he indicated that the incident wouldn’t disrupt official exchanges between the sides, saying that planning was still underway for a visit by admiral Harry Harris Jr, commander of the US Pacific Command, later this year.

Lu Kang, a foreign ministry spokesperson, said China would “resolutely respond” to any deliberate provocations but declined to be drawn on any potential military response.

One of China’;s tactics has been to build “sandcastles”: small artificial islands that it builds in the middle of the sea by reclaiming reefs.

“But “not using force recklessly” does not mean China will renounce the use of force”.

Chinese state media on Thursday said a “guided-missile destroyer flotilla” under the navy’s South China Sea Fleet carried out a “realistic confrontation training exercise” involving anti-aircraft firing and firing at shore at night.

China takes the reclamation as natural extensions of insular features. One picture showed three warships sailing in a row.

“HMAS ships Stuart and Arunta will visit Zhanjiang, in Guangdong province, China, soon during their North Asia deployment”, the spokesman said in a statement.

The tribunal found it has authority to hear seven of Manila’s submissions under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and China’s decision not to participate did “not deprive the tribunal of jurisdiction”.