USA warship sails near island claimed by China in South China Sea

The passage of the USS Curtis Wilbur near Triton Island was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.

It followed a United States research institute’s claims that China was ramping up construction work on the artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea – with two military-length airstrips nearing completion.

The U.S. conducted a similar operation in October.

In a statement on Saturday, Senator McCain said he was encouraged by the news. Aside from China, Vietnam and Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the disputed waters.

Vietnam respects harmless travel complying with worldwide rules, Foreign Minister spokesman Le Hai Binh said in comments on the government website yesterday. In reality, the USA has never ratified UNCLOS and acts with scant regard for global law.

It described the American action as “intentionally provocative and “irresponsible and extremely dangerous”.

The Chinese military will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard national sovereignty and security regardless of provocative actions by the U.S., Yang said.

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.

Ironically, Xinhua said that Washington has unreasonably pointed its fingers at China, accusing Beijing of posing a threat to the “freedom of navigation” in the South China Sea and taking measures of “challenging the global order”. Under relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, Xinhua said China launched the task of carrying out anti-piracy escort missions in the Gulf of Aden off the waters of Somalia in late 2008.

China, however, would be one of the worst affected countries if shipping were disrupted, given its heavy reliance on imports from Africa and the Middle East via South East Asia.

The Paracel Islands are known as Xisha in Chinese and Hoang Sa in Vietnamese.

Chinese authorities have begun to develop travel links to the disputed islands – with a cruise service already attracting more than 10,000 tourists. One of the U.S.’ goals is to bring tension back to the region, Zhang said. He cited F-35 attack aircraft, a second Ford-class aircraft carrier, V-22 Ospreys and P-8A Poseidon surveillance planes as examples.

In August, it formally presented a case against China before an worldwide tribunal at The Hague, arguing that Beijing has no right to exercise what it refers to as “historic rights” over areas of the sea.

The defence ministry said the People’s Liberation Army garrison on Triton Island – which is part of the Paracel Islands – had taken action to warn off and repel the USS Curtis Wilbur, although no details were given. The United States rejects prior notification and sees these waters as open for lawful navigation compliant with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS). Australia strongly supports these rights.