Beijing rejects arbitration over South China Sea

A USA official said that the Navy chiefs have chose to follow rules and carry on negotiations to avoid clashes.

The sail-past fits a USA policy of pushing back against China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea.

The US Navy stressed that it is entitled to “protect the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations under worldwide law”.

“We would urge the USA not to continue down the wrong path. But if the USA side does continue, we will take all necessary measures according to the need”, Yang said. Attacks against global shipping persuaded President Thomas Jefferson, after a decade of unsuccessful attempts to persuade the European naval powers to defend commerce in the Mediterranean, to dispatch the U.S. Marines in 1801 to “the shores of Tripoli” to “chastise the insolence” of Tripoli and the Barbary pirates.

China’s military has released photos of armed fighter jets flying over the South China Sea, which are believed to have taken off from a group of islands Beijing claims to have sovereignty over.

“It won’t affect China’s sovereignty rights and jurisdiction in the South China Sea, our rights will not be undermined”.

Earlier this week, Washington had sent the destroyer, USS Lassen, within 12 nautical miles of Zhubi reef-a part of the Spratly archipelago.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration, based in The Hague, rejected China’s argument that the dispute was about sovereignty – and so beyond its remit.

“The U.S. are exercising their freedom of navigation”, a senior European Union official said at a briefing, chiming with the United States line.

A USA defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Chinese had expressed no desire to cancel scheduled visits by Chinese ships to a Florida port next week, and that Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of the US Pacific Command, would still visit China. China has not participated in the proceedings and does not recognize the court’s authority in the case. The case is being closely watched by the United States, a Philippines treaty ally. The reef is also claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines.

The Chinese side stresses on many occasions that China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters.

“The question has to be the current timing and whether this sending a mixed signal with America just having launched its Freedom of Navigation Operation in the South China Sea”, he added.

Johnathan Richardson, chief of naval operations for the USA, spoke by videoconference with his Chinese counterpart, telling him that US warships will continue to regularly sail within the territorial limit but that any sail-bys should not be seen as provocative.