{"id":162831,"date":"2015-10-27T17:19:04","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T17:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=162831"},"modified":"2015-10-27T17:19:04","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T17:19:04","slug":"china-says-us-warships-spratly-islands-passage-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/10\/china-says-us-warships-spratly-islands-passage-illegal\/","title":{"rendered":"China says US warship’s Spratly islands passage ‘illegal’"},"content":{"rendered":"
Chinese officials have condemned a US ship’s passage near disputed islands in the South China Sea as “illegal” and a threat to their country’s sovereignty.<\/p>\n
The guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen breached the 12-nautical mile zone China claims around Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly archipelago.<\/p>\n
The US has confirmed the operation took place, apparently as part of its Freedom of Navigation programme.<\/p>\n
The operation is a challenge to China’s claims over the artificial islands.<\/p>\n
Lu Kang, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said Beijing would “resolutely respond to any country’s deliberately provocative actions”.<\/p>\n
He added that the ship had been “tracked and warned” while on the mission to deliberately enter the disputed waters.<\/p>\n
The Chinese foreign ministry summoned the US ambassador to protest over the move.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary Ash Carter confirmed that the USS Lassen had passed within 12 miles of the islands, during questioning by the Senate Armed Forces Committee.<\/p>\n
US Defence Department spokesman Cdr Bill Urban had earlier said that “the United States is conducting routine operations in the South China Sea in accordance with international law”.<\/p>\n
The move was welcomed by several countries in the East Asia region, including the Philippines and Japan.<\/p>\n
China claims most of the South and East China seas. Other countries in South-East Asia have competing claims for the Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands and Scarborough Shoal, which are thought to have resource-rich waters around them.<\/p>\n
The reefs, which were submerged, were turned into islands by China by a massive dredging project which began in late 2013.<\/p>\n
China says this work is legal and in a meeting with US President Barack Obama last month in Washington, President Xi Jinping said China had “no intention to militarise” the islands.<\/p>\n
But Washington believes Beijing is constructing military facilities, designed to reinforce its disputed claim to most of the region – a major shipping zone.<\/p>\n
The US Freedom of Navigation programme challenges what it deems to be “excessive claims” to the world’s oceans and airspace.<\/p>\n
It was developed to promote international adherence to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, even though the US has not formally ratified the treaty.<\/p>\n
In 2013 and 2014, the US conducted Freedom of Navigation operations of different kinds against China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam – each of whom occupies territory in the South China Sea.<\/p>\n