China condemns U.S. warship's route in South China Sea

Kirk Spitzer | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption U.S. Navy Destroyer Heads Towards South China Sea On Monday, the United States sent a guided-missile destroyer to challenge 12-nautical-mile territorial limits that China claims it built around artificial islands in the South China Sea.

TOKYO — Beijing reacted angrily Tuesday to a decision by the U.S. Navy to sail a guided-missile destroyer within 12 miles of artificial islands under construction by China in the South China Sea.

The USS Lassen sailed within the presumed territorial limits around the new islands at Subi and Mischief reefs. Those reefs are among seven oceanic features in the disputed South China Sea where China is dredging sand and building major land-based facilities — including long runways and deep-water ports.

China’s Foreign Ministry was quick to condemn the U.S. action Tuesday, saying the ship's actions were illegal and that the move threatened regional peace as well as U.S.-China relations.

"The actions of the U.S. warship have threatened China's sovereignty and security interests, jeopardized the safety of personnel and facilities on the reefs, and damaged regional peace and stability," the ministry said on its website. "The Chinese side expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition," the statement added.

Beijing said it tracked and warned the U.S. vessel when it passed through the waters Tuesday local time.

A U.S. Defense Department official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the movement of the ship said the Lassen moved through the area without incident.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday that he could not comment on any specific operation, but said “the U.S. conducts routine operations in the South China Sea in accordance with international law, as we do around the globe.”

He also noted that the United States does not assert any claim of territory in the South China Sea. “The United States will fly or sail anywhere that international law allows,” he said.

China claims territorial sovereignty to virtually all of the South China Sea, which includes some of the world’s busiest trade routes. Five other countries have competing claims in the same region. Washington has said that international law does not give China any territorial rights around the new islands.

Adm. Harry Harris Jr., the top U.S. military commander in the Pacific, said earlier this year he was concerned that China could use the islands to hinder sea or air navigation.

U.S. officials have hinted for months that they would send U.S. ships into waters immediately surrounding one or more of China’s new islands to demonstrate U.S. commitment to “freedom of navigation.”

“Make no mistake: The United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as we do around the world, and the South China Sea is not and will not be an exception,” U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a speech in Boston on Oct. 13.

Analysts in the region said the U.S. move was no surprise.

“The Subi and Mischief reefs are low-tide elevations which no state can claim as territories. To deny Chinese illegitimate territorial claims, the U.S. Navy needed to physically challenge it. Otherwise, China establishes no-go zones in the high seas and hinders freedom of navigation,” said Tetsuo Kotani, a maritime security specialist at the Japan Institute of International Affairs in Tokyo.

The U.S. move was long overdue, and likely will continue, Euan Graham, director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, in Sydney, Australia, wrote in a blog post Tuesday.

“The South China Sea has already become a symbolic U.S.-China sparring ground, raising the temperature for what should have been a routine operation conducted months ago,” Graham wrote. “The operation is unlikely to end here and will probably usher in a sustained U.S. naval and air presence in the weeks ahead.”

Ken Jimbo, senior research fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies in Tokyo said the next move is up to China.

“China's military responses are muted at this moment. But there will be a demonstration by other means, most likely through the forms of military exercise in South China Sea in the near future, to counter-demonstrate China's claims,” Jimbo said.

Contributing: Tom Vanden Brook and Gregory Korte in Washington