US Warship Sailed Close to China Claimed Island

Known as a “freedom of navigation operation”, the patrol represented a challenge not to any territorial claim over Triton, but to what the USA sees as excessive restrictions from all three claimants on the waters surrounding the island, US officials said.

A US destroyer sailed into the area of the sea containing the Paracel Islands group, and within 12 nautical miles of Zhongjian Island, or Triton Island in English, on Saturday, the Defense Department said.

In a statement on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hua Chunying, a ministry spokeswoman, said, “The U.S. warship’s arbitrary entrance of China’s territorial water has violated the relevant Chinese law, and the Chinese side has taken relevant measures in accordance with the law including monitoring and warning”.

Chinese troops on the island along with navy vessels and warplanes had immediately identified the USA warship and “warned and expelled it swiftly”, Yang said, adding that Chinese armed forces will continue to take whatever measures “necessary to safeguard China’s sovereignty and security, no matter what provocations the United States side may take”.

The warship traveled within 12 nautical miles of Triton without providing prior notification to any of the three claimants, the US defense official said.

“The Nansha islands have been Chinese territory since ancient times. It is a deliberate provocation”, he said.

However China’s foreign ministry described the actions by the U.S.as “intentionally provocative” and “irresponsible and extremely dangerous”.

A country can choose not to rectify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“That is true in the South China Sea, as in other places around the globe”, he said.

The operation followed calls in Congress for the Obama administration to follow up on the October operation.

Besides, it is clear and obvious that China does not seek to militarize the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea, and its construction activities there do not target any other country and will not hinder the global passages that all countries are entitled to under worldwide law. The Pentagon’s AirSea Battle strategy for war with China envisages a massive bombardment of Chinese military, communications and industrial assets from bases and ships off the Chinese coast.

A U.S. Navy warship sailed through South China Sea waters claimed by China Saturday in a “freedom of navigation” exercise, which China denounced as “grave misconduct”.

Pentagon spokesman Davis said the USA destroyer was conducting a routine “freedom-of-navigation operation in the South China Sea”.

Davis said the United States was interested in maintaining free navigation and was not getting involved in sovereignty claims in the South China Sea.

The island is one of many in the area subject to competing claims, in a saga that has raised tensions between China and its neighbors.

File picture shows the US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur patrolling in the Philippine Sea.

It asserted that freedom of navigation and overflights in the South China Sea has never been, and would not be, a problem.