U.S. warship sails near island claimed by China in South China Sea

Citing historic grounds, China has laid claim to almost the entire South China Sea and its islands, reefs and atolls.

However, a senior military official said the failure to conduct the navigation operations between 2012 and last October was the result of bureaucratic opposition within the Obama administration that sought to avoid upsetting China. “It is a deliberate provocation”, he said.

Taiwanese media report that Chu Mei-ling, who hails from Kaohsiung, changed her official residence to the Spratly Islands on January 21 in support of the government’s ambitions in the South China Sea.

Chinese authorities have begun to develop travel links to the disputed islands – with a cruise service already attracting more than 10,000 tourists. Since 1979, the US Freedom of Navigation program has demonstrated non-acquiescence to excessive maritime claims by coastal states all around the world.

China’s defense ministry called the American action “intentionally provocative and “irresponsible and extremely unsafe”.

China’s Defense Ministry condemned the move late Saturday.

The analyst talked about statements made by US Senator John McCain and Representative Randy Forbes about the US military activities in the disputed waters, saying these statements are disingenuous.

Bateman also asks “what freedoms are being threatened?” in the South China Sea.

“Freedom of navigation and flyover in the South China Sea has never been a problem and will not be a problem”, it said.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a country is given 12 nautical miles of territorial control.

“They promised to strike a “head-on blow” at any foreign vessel that challenged China’s territorial virility by sailing close to the five artificial islands that Xi has been dredging into existence off the Philippines coast”. All three rival claimants have overlapping claims in the Paracels and require prior notice from ships transiting what they consider their territorial waters. Triton Island is a manned Chinese outpost but is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.

While the USA constantly refers to the danger to vital shipping lanes, its real concern is its ability to mount large naval and air operations in waters off the Chinese mainland unchallenged.

The U.S. patrol was a “serious offense” and a “deliberately provocative action”, the statement said.

Australia’s Minister for Defence Marise Payne. She glossed over the fact that the largest share goes to China, which has no interest in disrupting trade.

But it says attempts by all three claiming parties to regulate passage through those waters, by requiring permission or advance notification, violate worldwide law. On the return leg, Turnbull also met with Admiral Harris in Hawaii.

“The so-called freedom of navigation plans and acts that the United States has upheld for many years in reality do not accord with generally recognised worldwide law”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a daily news briefing. “But it doesn’t mean that this country can defy the law and send its vessels into other countries’ territorial waters without authorization”.