Beijing: The tracked, monitored and warned off the USS John S. McCain when it trespassed upon Chinese territorial waters near Xisha Islands on Friday: command spokesperson
A U.S. warship sailed near the Chinese-controlled Paracel Islands in the disputed South China Sea on Friday in a freedom of navigation operation, the U.S. Navy said, the first such mission under President Joe Biden’s new administration. China’s military condemned the move, saying it had dispatched naval and air units to follow and warn away the ship.
The busy waterway is one of a number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which include a trade war, U.S. sanctions, Hong Kong and Taiwan. China has been infuriated by repeated U.S. sailings near the islands Beijing occupies and controls in the South China Sea. China says it has irrefutable sovereignty and has accused Washington of deliberately stoking tensions.
The U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet said the destroyer USS John S. McCain “asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the vicinity of the Paracel Islands, consistent with international law”.
The freedom of navigation operation upheld the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea recognised in international law by challenging the “unlawful restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam”, it said.
The Southern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army said the ship had entered into what it termed the territorial waters of the Paracels without permission, “seriously infringing upon China’s sovereignty and security”.
The United States was “deliberately disrupting the good atmosphere of the South China Sea of peace, friendship, and cooperation”, it added. China took full control of the Paracels in 1974 after a short battle with South Vietnamese forces.
Vietnam, as well as Taiwan, continue to claim the islands. Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines have claims to other parts of the South China Sea, where China has been building artificial islands and constructing air bases on some of them.
The same U.S. ship involved in this mission earlier this week transited the sensitive Taiwan Strait, drawing an angry response from Beijing.
Last month, a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group entered the South China Sea for what the Navy said was routine operations.
Earlier, The U.S. military said two of its warships sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea on Monday, a move that angered Beijing at a time of tense ties between the world’s two biggest economies.
The busy waterway is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which also include a trade war, U.S. sanctions and Taiwan.
President Donald Trump dramatically increased pressure on China to reach a trade deal by threatening to hike U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods this week and soon target hundreds of billions more.
The U.S. guided-missile destroyers Preble and Chung Hoon traveled within 12 nautical miles of Gaven and Johnson Reefs in the Spratly Islands, a U.S. military spokesman told media. Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the Seventh Fleet, said the “innocent passage” aimed “to challenge excessive maritime claims and preserve access to the waterways as governed by international law”.
In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the U.S. ships entered the waters near the islets without the Chinese government’s permission, and the Chinese navy warned them to leave.
–The Daily Mail-Global Times news exchange item
