China: Measures in place to deal with U.S. sail-bys
BEIJING — China’s military will take “all necessary” measures in response to any future U.S. Navy incursions into what it considers its territorial waters around islands in the South China Sea, a Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday.
The statement by Col. Yang Yujun followed the sailing of a U.S. guided missile destroyer within the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit of one of the islands newly created by China in the strategically vital region. The U.S. refuses to recognize the man-made islets as deserving of sovereign territory status.
Later Thursday, Adm. Johnathan Richardson, chief of naval operations for the U.S., spoke by videoconference with his Chinese counterpart, telling him that U.S. warships will continue to regularly sail within the territorial limit but that any sail-bys should not be seen as provocative.
A senior Navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Richardson told People’s Liberation Army’s Navy commander Adm. Wu Shengli that the U.S. will continue to sail wherever international law allows.
The Chinese side took no forceful action during the USS Lassen’s sail-by on Tuesday but strenuously protested the maneuver. China’s reaction fits the pattern in similar such incidents in recent years. Yang offered no details on how Beijing might respond differently in the future.
“We would urge the U.S. not to continue down the wrong path. But if the U.S. side does continue, we will take all necessary measures according to the need,” Yang said. China’s resolve to safeguard its national sovereignty and security interests is “rock-solid,” he added.
China claims virtually the entire South China Sea and its islands, reefs and atolls as its sovereign territory, an assertion challenged by five other regional governments.
While the U.S. takes no formal position on sovereignty, it insists on freedom of navigation and has urged China to cease its ambitious project to construct new islands complete with buildings, harbors and airstrips.
Yang reiterated China’s claim that the USS Lassen violated Chinese sovereignty and international law, although the sail-by appeared to fall under internationally allowed “innocent passage” rules. Yang gave no details of China’s claims.
Yang said a pair of Chinese navy ships had shadowed the Lassen, monitored its actions and issued warnings.
Yang indicated that the incident wouldn’t disrupt official exchanges between the sides, saying that planning was still underway for a visit by Adm. Harry Harris Jr., commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, later this year. Harris recently said the South China Sea is no more China’s than the Gulf of Mexico is Mexico’s.
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, an international tribunal ruled Thursday that it can take on a case between China and the Philippines over disputed territory in the South China Sea, overruling objections from Beijing that the arbitration body has no authority to hear the case.
The Philippine case, which was filed before the tribunal in The Hague in January 2013, contends that China’s extensive territorial claims in the strategic waters do not conform with the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea and should be declared invalid. The Philippines also asserts that some Chinese-occupied reefs and shoals do not generate, or create a claim to, territorial waters.
The tribunal said it has authority to look into seven issues raised by the Philippines against China but added that its jurisdiction over seven others “will need to be considered in conjunction with the merits.” It asked Manila to clarify one other matter.
It said it has set hearings and expects to hand down a decision on the case next year.
China has declared it would not take part in the arbitration, insisting on one-onone negotiations with smaller rival claimants which analysts say would give it advantage because of its sheer size and clout.