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| The alleged on-going land reclamation of China at Subi reef is seen from Pagasa island (Thitu Island) in the Spratlys group of islands in the South China Sea. (Ritchie B. Tongo/Reuters) |
China responded by calling the action illegal, dangerous and provocative, expressing “strong discontent” and “resolute opposition” and saying the move had damaged regional peace and stability.
The USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, was accompanied by Navy surveillance planes as it approached the Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands, the official said.
The mission “was completed without incident,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The U.S action is intended to uphold the principle of freedom of navigation in the international waters of the South China Sea, U.S. officials said, and underscore that Washington does not accept China’s claim to territorial waters around artificially built islands.
Experts said it was also aimed at reassuring nervous American allies that Washington would not allow Beijing to throw its weight around in the region unchallenged.
The decision to go ahead followed months of deliberation in Washington, but angered China, which said last month it would “never allow any country” to violate what it considers to be its territorial waters and airspace around the islands.
The U.S. vessel entered Chinese waters “illegally and without the Chinese government’s permission,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in a statement, adding that Chinese authorities had monitored and warned it as it passed.
“The action by the U.S. warship has threatened China’s sovereignty and security interests, endangered the safety of personnel and facilities on the islands and damaged regional peace and stability,” he said, urging the United States to “correct its wrongdoing immediately” and not take further “dangerous and provocative actions.”
Earlier, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had urged the United States “not to act blindly or make trouble out of nothing.”
China claims almost all of the South China Sea as its territory, including the main islands and reefs, and has argued that giving up that claim would “shame its ancestors.” The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims, and several of them also occupy different islands, reefs and rocks.
A massive Chinese program of land reclamation and construction on several islands has taken place since 2014, upsetting ties with the United States and several of those rival claimants.
This week’s naval mission is also partly intended to test a pledge made by President Xi Jinping during his visit to Washington last month that Beijing would not militarize the islands.
Subi Reef, which lies close to the Philippines in the South China Sea, used to be submerged at high tide before China began a massive dredging project to turn it into an island. It is now big enough to potentially host an airstrip.
Satellite images also show what looks like a surveillance tower and multiple satellite antennas on Subi reef, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, part of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Under the international law of the sea, turning such features into artificial islands does not imply any rights to territorial waters around them, something the U.S. mission is designed to underline — although countries can claim a “safety zone” of just 500 meters around previously submerged reefs.
A Chinese airstrip is already under construction at Fiery Cross reef and experts say another could potentially soon be built at Mischief reef. China says the construction work is primarily designed for civilian use and will not affect freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. Four other countries already have airstrips in the Spratlys.
But the Chinese Embassy in Washington said that the concept of freedom of navigation should not be used as an excuse for muscle-flexing and that the United States should “refrain from saying or doing anything provocative and act responsibly in maintaining peace and regional stability,” Chinese state media reported.
The Navy has wanted to conduct such an operation for some time, but the Obama administration had prevented that until now, experts said, reflecting a fine balance between standing up to China and potentially provoking a spiral of further confrontation and regional militarization.
In the end, though, many U.S. experts said the administration had little choice but to do something.
“This should have been done a long time ago,” said Bonnie Glaser, an expert on the Chinese military at CSIS.
While the exercise would probably not stop China from further construction or militarization of air strips on the reefs, Glaser said that there were still good reasons to go ahead.
“Our aim in any freedom of navigation operation is not aimed at that kind of objective. It is simply to sail through waters that are subject to the law of the sea,” she said.
“Some parts of the administration believed this would make things even more difficult, that China would become even more obstreperous, more difficult to deal with,” she said, “and others thought this wasn’t something we should do before Xi Jinping came to Washington.”
But in Beijing, retired Major General Yang Yi, a researcher at the Institute of Strategic Studies of the People’s Liberation Army National Defense University said it would damage U.S-China relations and only encourage China to speed up construction on the islands, and possibly also their militarization.
“The act is reckless, dangerous and irresponsible,” he said. “It shows the United States has the mentality of the big brother but the temper of a child. If it becomes a regular thing, military conflict in the region is inevitable and the US would be the one who started it.”
At September’s summit, President Obama told Xi that the United States would operate, fly or sail anywhere that international law allows. On Monday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest referred questions on specific operations to the Pentagon but reiterated that commitment to freedom of navigation.
“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 maybe even more than that, Earnest said. “Ensuring the free flow of this commerce and that freedom of navigation of those vessels is protected is critically important to the global economy.”
Additional patrols will follow in coming weeks, and could also be conducted around features that have been built up by Vietnam and the Philippines in the Spratlys, a U.S. defense official told the Reuters news agency.
“This is something that will be a regular occurrence, not a one-off event,” the official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s not something that’s unique to China.”
Yanmei Xie, senior China researcher at the International Crisis Group in Beijing said there was a risk of miscalculation and accidental clashes in such actions, but added that inaction would also have carried risks.
“It is a risky maneuver, but there is no risk-free prescription,” she said.
“Inaction would amount to acquiescing to the practice of taking unilateral actions to change the status quo in disregard of the international law of the sea,” she added. “It would undermine the credibility of the U.S. as an underwriter of regional security. It would sow doubt among American allies and friends about the U.S. commitment and the durability of its presence in the region.”
China, she said, “does not want to risk an open conflict with the US but cannot appear weak-kneed in the face of what it perceives as American intrusion and provocation.”
State Department spokesman John Kirby said Monday the United States is not required to consult with other nations if it decides to conduct such operations.
“The whole point of freedom of navigation in international waters is that it’s international waters. You don’t need to consult with anybody. That’s the idea,” he said.
The USS Lassen, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, operates out of its home port in Yokosuka, Japan — headquarters for the U.S. 7th Fleet.
The Lassen has been deployed to the South China Sea since late May and has had several routine interactions at sea with Chinese naval vessels, according to U.S. Navy officials.
Xu Yangjingjing contributed to this report from Beijing. Craig Whitlock and Steven Mufson reported from Washington. see more
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