China outraged over ‘serious USA military provocation’

The Defence Ministry yesterday condemned the Unites States for committing a “serious military provocation” by flying strategic bombers over a Chinese artificial island in the South China Sea.

The U.S. takes no official stance on sovereignty claims in the strategically crucial sea that China claims nearly in its entirety.

The Defense Ministry accused the US of intentionally raising tensions within the disputed region, where China has-been aggressively asserting its claims to almost all islands, reefs & their surrounding seas.

A report in the Wall St Journal said there were two B52s that flew perhaps due to bad weather and to the assignment.

“The Chinese have raised concerns with us about the flight path of a recent training mission”, said Urban.

The U.S. has refrained from taking sides in the territorial dispute, but has asserted its own military rights to move freely in global airspace and waters.

A Freedom of Navigation operation is, according to the U.S. Department of State, is the principle that sovereign nations have maritime and overflight rights and freedoms on a worldwide basis on global waters.

Chinese officials demanded the US “immediately adopt measures to prevent such risky actions”.

Taiwan’s representative office in the US said the remarks shows US Congress support Taiwan as a peacemaker in the South China Sea.

“China takes the incident seriously and has lodged solemn representation with the US”, Xinhua quoted Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei as saying on Saturday.

In October, a U.S. Navy ship passed within 12 nautical miles of the disputed islands in the South China Sea. In fact, Asia-Pacific defence ministers meeting ahead of the two summits scrapped plans for their customary joint declaration as they could not agree on language on the South China Sea.

Urban said the flight was not a “freedom of navigation” operation, suggesting the flight could have strayed off course.

Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province and filed a diplomatic complaint demanding the United States not go through with the arms sale in order to avoid harming US-China relations.

The main contractor behind the weaponry is Raytheon. It added that China would “take all necessary measures” to defend its sovereignty over the islands.