China accused the US of making an illegal incursion into its waters on Tuesday after an American warship sailed close to two man-made islands in the South China Sea in an effort to push back against Beijing’s territorial claims in the disputed waters.
In what the American navy labelled a freedom of navigation operation, the USS Lassen sailed within 12 nautical miles of two artificial islands — Subi and Mischief reefs — that China has constructed in the Spratly chain.
“China strongly urges the US . . . to immediately correct its mistake and not take any dangerous or provocative acts that threaten China’s sovereignty and security interests,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website.
The ministry added that the voyage had been shadowed by a Chinese warship that had issued warnings to the US destroyer. Social media reports identified the Chinese ship as the Kunming, also a destroyer.
Wu Shicun, director of China’s National Institute for South China Sea Studies expressed scepticism over the stated US rationale for the voyage.
“Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam have all built islands in the South China Sea — and Vietnam is still building them,” he said. “So you can see how America is biased towards China. They want to oppose China on the issue of the South China Sea.”
A Chinese admiral said this month that the People’s Liberation Army would hand a “head-on blow” to any foreign forces that violated Chinese sovereignty, in comments that came after the Financial Times reported that the US was preparing to launchoperations.
Chris Johnson, a former top China analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency, said it was “interesting” that the US chose to run the operation one day after the Chinese Communist party opened an annual meeting of its Central Committee. “That will not be missed by the Chinese,” said Mr Johnson, who added that it would be seen as a deliberate move to interfere with Chinese politics.
He said the fact the operation occurred so soon after President Xi Jinping visited Washington, coupled with the recent leak of the names of Chinese companies that have allegedly gained from commercial cyber espionage, highlighted the failure of Mr Xi and President Barack Obama to resolve the most serious issues in the US-China relationship.
“The summit, while good on atmospherics, didn’t bridge the fundamental differences between the two sides,” said Mr Johnson.
The manoeuvre by the USS Lassen marks the first time since 2012 that the US Navy has sailed through the 12-nautical-mile zone around any islands claimed by China. It is aimed at demonstrating that Washington does not recognise any territorial claims over artificial islands in the South China Sea.
International maritime law allows nations to claim the territory inside the zone surrounding natural islands but does not allow countries to claim territory surrounding submerged features that have been raised above sea level through construction.
Over the past two years, China has built five artificial islands in the South China Sea by dredging thousands of acres around reefs and atolls. On one island — a reef called Fiery Cross — it has constructed a 3km runway that analysts believe could handle military jets. As China has built up its navy and coast guard, it has also become much more assertive in patrolling the South China Sea, whose shipping lanes handle roughly 30 per cent of global trade.
During his Washington visit, Mr Xi asserted Chinese claims over the area, saying “islands in the South China Sea since ancient times are China’s territory”. He said the construction did “not target or impact any country and China does not intend to pursue militarisation”.
But at a joint press conference with the Chinese leader during the trip, Mr Obama expressed concern about the “land reclamation, construction and the militarisation of disputed areas”.
On Monday Josh Earnest, White House press secretary, reiterated the US view that it has the right to operate in what it considers international waters.
“This is a critically important principle, particularly in the South China Sea, because there are billions of dollars of commerce that flow through that region of the world every year . . . and ensuring the free flow of this commerce and that freedom of navigation of those vessels is protected is critically important to the global economy,” said Mr Earnest.
China and its neighbours have contested islands in the South China Sea for decades. While most claimant nations have built on maritime features, China has taken such efforts to an unprecedented scale. Most analysts believe it is trying to boost its power projection in the western Pacific, where the US has been the dominant naval power since the second world war.
In 2012 Hu Jintao, then president of China, signalled that the Communist party would “build China into a maritime power”, marking the first time China had referred to itself as a maritime power in 500 years.
China is building up a “blue-water” navy that can operate far from its coastline and particularly beyond the so-called “first island chain” that separates the South China, East China and Yellow seas from the Pacific.
In an example of its growing capabilities and reach, five Chinese warships sailed through international watersoff the coast of Alaska last month as Mr Obama was visiting the Arctic.
Additional reporting by Geoff Dyer in Washington and Christian Shepherd and Anna Hsieh in Beijing
Source: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8a05582e-7c18-11e5-98fb-5a6d4728f74e.html
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