U.S. naval vessels sailing through international waters in the South China Sea, including areas claimed by China, cannot be considered provocative, the U.S. Navy’s most senior uniformed officer said on Thursday (October 15).
China has overlapping claims with Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei in the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.
Beijing has warned it will not stand for violations of its territorial waters in the name of freedom of navigation. The United States says international law prohibits claiming territory around artificial islands built on previously submerged reefs.
“The United States navy is a global navy, and it should not be a surprise to anybody, that we will exercise freedom of navigation through wherever international law will allow,” John Richardson, the U.S. chief of naval operations, told reporters in Tokyo.
“(It’s) part of routine navigation in international waters, consistent with the international rules there — I don’t see how this can be interpreted as provocative or anything,” he added.
Some analysts in Washington believe the United States has already decided to conduct freedom-of-navigation operations inside the 12-nautical-mile limits that China claims around islands built on reefs in the Spratly archipelago.
Richardson, who was promoted to his post last month, is in Japan at the start of a 12-day trip around Asia and Europe. Starting in Japan, he said, showed the importance of the alliance between the two countries.
Richardson met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying repeated that China has consistently respected freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
“I can stress one more time that China has consistently respected and safeguarded the freedom of navigation and overflight by all countries, according to the law, in the South China Sea and other important international channels. But we resolutely oppose any country doing harm to another country’s sovereignty and security in the name of freedom of navigation and overflight,” she said at a daily news briefing in Beijing.
The Global Times, a widely read and influential tabloid, said in an editorial that these potential U.S. patrols were not really about freedom of navigation, but a show of strength intended to emphasise U.S. global hegemony.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said on Tuesday (October 13) the U.S. military would sail or fly wherever international law allowed.
