A day after China said it drove a US Navy destroyer away from Beijing-claimed waters in the South China Sea, the US 7th Fleet said the same warship sailed through those waters to challenge the Chinese claims.
The “guided-missile destroyer USS Milius asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands, consistent with international law,” a statement from 7th Fleet spokesperson Lt. jg. Luka Bakic said.
The US statement also said the Milius challenged China’s claim to “straight baselines enclosing the Paracels,” meaning Beijing’s claims to waters between the islands, even when those waters are outside the internationally recognized 12-nautical-mile limit from a coastline for territorial waters. But Beijing has rejected the UN ruling, and built up military bases on those disputed islands in the Spratlys – known as the Nansha Islands in China – as it has done in the Paracels.“The actions of the U.S. military have seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security and seriously violated international law,” Tan Kefei, spokesperson for the Defense Ministry, said in a statement.
Beijing has made similar claims after other FONOPs, which the US conducts regularly around the Paracels and the Spratlys to the south.Beijing regularly makes statements that any US Navy operations in the South China Sea inflame tensions and show that Washington, and its partners who keep a naval presence in the waterway, are damaging the region’s security.
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