Navy to challenge Chinese claims in South China Sea

David Larter | Navy Times

The Navy is preparing to send a ship inside the 12-mile territorial limit China claims for its man-made island chain in the South China Sea, according to military officials.

The action could take place within days but awaits final approval from the Obama administration, the officials told Navy Times.

Plans to send a warship through the contested space in the vicinity of the Spratly Islands have been rumored since May, but three Pentagon officials who spoke to Navy Times on background to discuss future operations say Navy officials believe approval of the mission is imminent.

If approved, it would be the first time since 2012 that the Navy has directly challenged China's claims to the islands' territorial limits.

The land reclamation projects in the islands have been the focus of increasing tensions between China and United States along with its regional allies, including the Philippines, since reports of the project began surfacing in 2013. However, the U.S. and other nations have disputed the legitimacy of the islands built by China in what is viewed as an act of regional aggression.

A spokesman for the National Security Council deferred questions regarding the Navy's plans to the office of the Secretary of Defense, but drew attention to President Obama's Sept. 28 remarks before the U.N. General Assembly, where he said the U.S. has "an interest in upholding the basic principles of freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce, and in resolving disputes through international law, not the law of force."

Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban declined to comment on future operations but referred to Defense Secretary Ash Carter's comments from Sept. 1, when he said that the "United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as we do all around the world."

The news of the pending maneuver comes just a day after Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, told a maritime conference in Australia that "some nations" were behaving in a manner inconsistent with international law, a clear reference to the ongoing dispute with China.

"It's my sense that some nations view freedom of the seas as up for grabs, as something that can be taken down and redefined by domestic law or by reinterpreting international law," Swift said, according to a report by Reuters. "Some nations continue to impose superfluous warnings and restrictions on freedom of the seas in their exclusive economic zones and claim territorial water rights that are inconsistent with (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). This trend is particularly egregious in contested waters."

In September, David Shear, assistant secretary of defense for Asia-Pacific security, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Navy hadn't steamed or flown within 12 nautical miles of the islands since 2012, which is before China's island construction project began in earnest. Six nations with South China Sea coasts have competing claims to the territory being staked out by China's island building.

Later that day, House Armed Services Committee member Randy Forbes, R-Va. sent a letter signed by a bipartisan group of 29 House members calling the island-building project a threat to freedom of navigation and the peaceful international order in place since the end of World War II.

"In order to deter these actions and prevent further erosion of stability in the region, the United States must make clear that it is fully committed to maintaining freedom of navigation in the South China Sea," the letter read, calling for a "highly symbolic" passage of Navy ships and aircraft past the islands to send a message to China.

When reports that the U.S. was planning to challenge China's island claims surfaced in May, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson urged "relevant countries to refrain from taking risky and provocative action," according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. and China's neighbors in the region are concerned that China is creating military installations on the islands. In June, images surfaced of a nearly complete 10,000-foot-long airstrip on one of the islands, big enough to accommodate military aircraft.

China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, a position that has put it at loggerheads with its neighbors and prompted countries in the region, including erstwhile enemies such as Vietnam, to turn to the U.S. to offset the newly aggressive China.