Naval Power Projection in South China Sea

However, China’s foreign ministry has accused the U.S. of “violating Chinese laws by entering Chinese territorial waters without permission” – and warned it has taken “relevant measures” to monitor the islands.

Military observers are suggesting that the latest move by the U.S. to send a warship in Chinese territorial waters will return tension to the South China Sea and encourage more regional stakeholders to challenge China.

China’s Ministry of Defense spokesman Yang Yujun said in a statement the USA action “severely violated the law”.

U.S. military leaders admit the U.S. Navy Destroyer, Curtis Wilbur sailed into waters that China claims – With the U.S. saying it was a challenge to claims by mainland China, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

The Obama administration is facing pressure from critics to more actively defy Chinese claims and to reassure smaller Asian allies that the biggest Asian power won’t be permitted to expand unabated. In May 2014, China parked a huge oil drilling platform off the Vietnamese coast in the area, prompting Vietnam to send fishing boats and coast guard vessels to harass the rig and nearby Chinese vessels.

But Yang described the U.S. move as “very unprofessional and irresponsible” for the safety of the troops of both sides, and may cause “extremely risky consequences”.

Officials said that the country will fly, sail, and operate wherever worldwide law allows and that includes the South China Sea.

“The United States has publicly declared its policy of conducting freedom of navigation operations globally, consistent with global law”, Senator Payne said. China is engaged in a territorial dispute with four countries, including Vietnam and Philippines over the island.

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

According to the China’s law on the territorial sea and contiguous zone enacted in 1992, foreign warships entering China’s territorial waters must be approved by the Chinese government. Their claims do not comply with worldwide law, Davis said, and no permission was sought before the Curtis Wilbur sailed past.

Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou mails a letter on the disputed Itu Aba or Taiping island in the South China Sea.

Senator McCain added that the operation challenged the “excessive maritime claims that restrict the rights and freedoms of the United States”.

BEIJING, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) – Turning a deaf ear to China’s repeated opposition, representation and warning, the United States on Saturday flagrantly dispatched one of its destroyers into 12 nautical miles of an island in the Xisha Islands irrefutably owned by China. China has pledged not to “militarize” the islands, but has not made clear what that means.

The U.S. has called for all land reclamation and construction on the reefs and islets to be stopped.

Other states and China have competing claims in the South China Sea, which can be full of resources.

But at the same time U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter is calling China’s build-up in the area a “miscalculation”.