A US Navy warship sailed within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island built up by China in the South China Sea, the first such challenge to Beijing in the strategic waterway since US President Donald Trump took office.
The US patrol, the first of its kind since October, marked the latest attempt to counter what Washington sees as Beijing's efforts to limit freedom of navigation in the strategic waters.
US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday the USS Dewey traveled close to Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands - among a string of islets, reefs and shoals over which China has territorial disputes with its neighbours.
The move angered Beijing, which reiterated its position that China has "indisputable sovereignty" over the Spratly Islands and their surrounding waters.
[...] One US official said it was the first operation near a land feature that was included in a ruling last year against China by an international arbitration court in The Hague. The court invalidated China's claim to sovereignty over large swathes of the South China Sea.
The US has criticised China's construction of man-made islands and build-up of military facilities in the sea and expressed concern they could be used to restrict free movement.
[...] US-based South China Sea analyst Greg Poling, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said [...] the key question was whether the US warship had engaged in a real challenge to the Chinese claims by turning on radar or launching a helicopter or boat - actions not permitted in a territorial sea under international law.
Otherwise, critics say, the operation would have resembled what is known as "innocent passage" and could have reinforced rather than challenged China's claim to a territorial limit around the reef.
War brewing with North Korea, picking fights with China. Good times.
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China's devious move under cover of virus
As outbreaks debilitate the US navy, there are fears China may be using the coronavirus pandemic as cover for asserting control over the South China Sea.
A Vietnamese fishing boat has been rammed and sunk. Military aircraft have landed at its artificial-island fortresses. And large-scale naval exercises has let everyone know China's navy is still pushing the boundaries, hard.
Meanwhile, the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group has retreated from the contested waterway in an unscheduled return to Guam – with hundreds of cases of COVID-19 on board.
China's Peoples Liberation Army knows this presents an opportunity.
"The outbreak of COVID-19 has significantly lowered the US Navy's warship deployment capability in the Asia-Pacific region," an article on its official website declares.
The website insists not a single one of its soldiers, sailors or pilots had contracted COVID-19. Instead, the crisis had served to strengthen the combat readiness and resolve of the Chinese military.
That has international affairs analysts worried that even a short-term withdrawal of US and international from the East and South China Seas could give Beijing the opportunity it has been waiting for.
"I think China is exploiting the US Navy's coronavirus challenges to improve its position in the South China Sea by giving the appearance it can and will operate there at will while the US is hamstrung," former Pacific Command Joint Intelligence Centre director Carl Schuster told CNN.
Previously:
(2020-01-09) China Initiates Conflict with Indonesia in the South China Sea
(2019-12-21) Malaysian Top Envoy: China's 'Nine-Dash Line' Claim 'Ridiculous'
(2019-11-22) US Warships Sail in Disputed South China Sea Amid Tensions
(2019-05-14) China Builds New Type 002 Mega Carrier as the Age of Sea Power Wanes
(2018-05-13) China Begins Sea Trials for its First Domestically Developed Aircraft Carrier
(2017-12-24) World's Largest Amphibious Plane in Production Takes Flight in China
(2017-05-25) US Warship Challenges China's Claims in South China Sea
(2017-04-26) China Launches Aircraft Carrier
(2017-03-14) Japan to Send its Biggest Warship to the South China Sea
(2017-01-13) Chinese State Media Boasts About its New Electronic Reconnaissance Ship
(2016-07-14) China's South China Sea Claims Rejected By "Binding" but Unenforceable Tribunal Ruling
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @03:47AM
Love the kind you clean up with a mop and bucket
Like the lost catacombs of Egypt only God knows where we stuck it
Hieroglyphics? Let me be Pacific I wanna be down in your South Seas
But I got this notion that the motion of your ocean means "Small Craft Advisory"
So if I capsize on your thighs high tide, B-5 you sunk my battleship
Please turn me on I'm Mister Coffee with an automatic drip
So show me yours I'll show you mine "Tool Time" you'll Lovett just like Lyle
And then we'll do it doggy style so we can both watch "X-Files"
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 26 2017, @04:08AM
That's a weird grammar issue given that we have a "critic", Greg Poling in the previous paragraph to which this observation is apparently attached. Yay for editors.
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Friday May 26 2017, @04:17AM (5 children)
"Mom! America's on my side of the water again!"
"Nuh uh! China's trying to limit freedom of navigation on purpose! Why would China name it 'Mischief Reef' unless they were trying to get me in trouble!"
Ugh -- I should have never had kids ... "You two shut up and play nice or I'll turn the heater up until you *really* have something to complain about."
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by davester666 on Friday May 26 2017, @05:57AM (1 child)
Please, turn the planet around and make Trump stay home while the rest of us continue our journey.
(Score: 2) by SanityCheck on Friday May 26 2017, @03:34PM
Just give the man the wheel ffs.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday May 26 2017, @08:09AM (1 child)
Yeah, it's like watching two gay men who are in love with each other participate in a fencing match.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @10:22PM
Yes it's just like that, except with navies instead of swords.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Friday May 26 2017, @10:58AM
"I'm not bombing you... I'm not bombing you!"
"Mom!!!"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @06:48AM (4 children)
We all know Trump is a coward. He won't dare do anything to someone who can bite back. He's too chicken shit to nuke China or even pathetic NK. What a pussy! A little pussy-grabbing pussy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @07:21AM (3 children)
It used to be that liberals were anti-war and anti-nuke.
Last election, we had Hillary Clinton eagerly increasing tension with Russia. They have more nukes than the USA. She was acting like she wanted a war.
Here we have a Trump-hater daring Trump to start a couple wars. Eh, probably land wars in Asia. This is inadvisable.
I guess it's relative, and the conservatives haven't changed. Liberals went from "we love Russia" (with Hillary's reset button stunt) to "we should fight Russia". Conservatives steadfastly see Russia as an untrustworthy frenemy that we should carefully try to get along with. Liberals made fun of Sarah Palin for her concern about Russia, then Crimea was annexed. Look, it's the same damn country with the same damn culture, and it even has the same damn leader. Russia hasn't changed.
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Friday May 26 2017, @08:26AM
I think that AC is being sarcastic/just trolling.
Not sure it matters who has more nukes, though. There are enough that all-out nuclear war remains 'infinitely bad'.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @08:37AM
Idiot, this isn't about Russia. China isn't even part of the country asia! Typical clueless Trump supporter.
(Score: 3, Informative) by butthurt on Friday May 26 2017, @09:04AM
> She was acting like she wanted a war.
I missed that. Checking the conservative media, I found the headline: "Hillary Clinton advocates war with Russia." According to the story, what she said was: "I personally would be advocating now for a no-fly zone and humanitarian corridors to try to stop the carnage on the ground and from the air, to try to provide some way to take stock of what’s happening, to try to stem the flow of refugees."
http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2015/10/02/hillary-clinton-advocates-war-russia/ [redstate.com]
Mr. Trump, you seem not to recall, ordered an attack on a Syrian air base. That's rather similar, I'd say.
When were the liberals making fun of Ms. Palin? During the war between Russia and Georgia in 2008? Seriously, how ridiculous can those liberals be?
-- http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/03/bush-georgia-obama-ukraine-104929 [politico.com]
The response by the Obama administration to the events in Ukraine and Crimea also entailed sanctions--so again there's a similarity.
(Score: 1) by mayo2y on Friday May 26 2017, @01:07PM
And here I thought expanding the Spratly Islands and declaring that International Shipping Lanes were part of Chinese Territorial Waters was the quintessential action of someone picking a fight. (Or being an aggressor when sensing weakness).
Responding to this action by the Chinese Govt and saying that these are international waters is not picking a fight - it may very well prevent a fight in the next generation.
You need to read a few more history books and not blindly react to news.