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posted by martyb on Friday May 26 2017, @03:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the sabre-rattling dept.

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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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @06:48AM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @06:48AM (#515865)

    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)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @07:21AM (#515874)

    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

      by Wootery (2341) on Friday May 26 2017, @08:26AM (#515884)

      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

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @08:37AM (#515891)

      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

      by butthurt (6141) on Friday May 26 2017, @09:04AM (#515895) Journal

      > 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.

      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.

      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?

      In a brief, five-day conflict, the Russian army routed its outnumbered and outgunned Georgian opponent and advanced to within a short drive of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Bush officials ruled out military options and found that, given the deterioration in U.S.-Russian relations over the previous five years, they had few good levers to influence the Kremlin. The sanctions Washington applied at the time had little resonance in Moscow.

      -- 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.