US navy raising stakes with Beijing over South China Sea
The United States navy is set to edge closer to Chinese territory as a top admiral questions Beijing’s claim to the South China Sea, saying nobody owns the region.
The US plans to send warships or military aircraft within 12 nautical miles of China's artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea, possibly within days, a Reuters report said on Saturday.
The report comes on the heels of remarks by the US navy’s new chief of naval operations Admiral John Richardson, who told the Defense News that the sea belonged to no one.
“You know 30 percent of the world’s trade goes through the South China Sea. Nobody owns that. It’s open. It’s international waters,” noted the admiral, adding elsewhere, “It’s interesting that some of the folks that are making contrary claims now … are the very nations who prosper the most under the current system of international rules and norms.”
This is while China has on different occasions asserted its sovereignty over the sea, with Chinese Vice Admiral Yuan Yubai, commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) North Sea Fleet, insisting back in September that the South China Sea belongs to China.
“The South China Sea, as the name indicates, is a sea area that belongs to China. And the sea from the Han dynasty, a long time ago where the Chinese people have been working and producing from the sea,” said the Chinese commander.
Given months of debate in Washington over the first naval patrols close to the Chinese outposts since 2012, several regional security experts and former naval officers said the US government might be reluctant to do them often.
Chinese Foreign Ministry officials said this month that Beijing would "never allow any country to violate China's territorial waters and airspace in the Spratly islands in the name of protecting navigation and overflight".
China claims most of the South China Sea. Other claimants are Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
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