- A US Navy destroyer challenged China in the South China Sea with a freedom of navigation operation on Tuesday.
- The USS Ralph Johnson sailed near the disputed Spratly Islands, the Navy said, adding in a statement that “radical and illegal maritime claims in the South China Sea pose a serious threat to the freedom of the seas.”
- The operation, one of at least six such operations this year, comes after the US State Department officially rejected most of China’s maritime claims, stating that its maritime claims and efforts to assert sovereignty are “illegal”.
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After the US State Department declared that Beijing’s maritime claims to the South China Sea and efforts to claim that the domain was illegal, the destroyer of the US Navy, USS Ralph Johnson challenged China with a navigation operation.
The Navy released a pair of photos Tuesday of the destroyer sailing near the disputed Spratly Islands, and a Navy spokesperson confirmed that the ship carried out a freedom of navigation operation in the area.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson (DDG 114) spreads near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. Ralph Johnson is deployed conducting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts for a free and open Indo-Pacific.
U.S. Navy photograph by 3rd Class Mass Communication Specialist Anthony Collier
“This freedom of navigation operation confirmed the rights, freedoms and legal uses of the sea recognized in international law by challenging the restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan,” the Navy explained in a statement.
The Navy stated that “radical and illegal maritime claims in the South China Sea represent a serious threat to the freedom of the seas.”
“The United States defends freedom of navigation as a principle,” said the Navy. “As long as some countries continue to claim and impose limits on rights that exceed their authority under international law, the United States will continue to defend the rights and freedoms of the sea guaranteed to all. No member of the international community should be intimidated or forced to renounce their rights. rights and freedoms.
The United States is aligning its South China Sea policy with a 2016 international arbitration tribunal ruling and officially rejecting many of China’s claims about the disputed waterway, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Monday.
“Beijing’s claims about offshore resources in most of the South China Sea are completely illegal, as is its intimidation campaign to control them,” the secretary said, adding that “the world’s predatory vision of the PRC has no place in the 21st century. “
While China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei have overlapping claims to the strategic South China Sea, China is among the most aggressive in enforcing its claims. Chinese military outposts can be found in the disputed Paracel and Spratly Islands, despite a 2016 arbitration court ruling that discredited many of China’s claims.
Beijing rejected the ruling of the Permanent Court of International Arbitration that made the decision at the request of the Philippines after the capture of Scarborough Shoal by China.
Second Class Logistics Specialist Paul Vance, from Lilburn, Georgia, assigned to the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson (DDG 114), scans the horizon with a telescopic alide, July 14, near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea
U.S. Navy photograph by 3rd Class Mass Communication Specialist Anthony Collier
To China’s frustration, the United States routinely challenges Beijing’s restrictions on innocent passage and excessive claims through regular freedom of navigation operations.
The Navy has conducted at least six operations of this type this year alone, as well as multiple presence operations. The Air Force also routinely conducts bomber overflights in the region.
Earlier this month, the US dispatched two carrier strike groups to the South China Sea to conduct dual carrier operations at the same time that the Chinese military was conducting exercises in the area.
In recent months, the US military has stepped up its activities in the South China Sea in response to what the Pentagon described as “a growing opportunist
David Stillwell, the undersecretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, strongly criticizing “China’s gangster tactics,” stressed Tuesday at an event by the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the United States “will not allow China to claim the Sea of the South China as its own, “USNI News reported.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry called the United States declaration on the South China Sea “irresponsible”, saying that it “violates and distorts international law, deliberately fuels territorial and maritime disputes, and undermines peace and stability regional “.
“We strongly regret and strongly oppose the wrong movement in the United States and urge it to stop causing problems on the issue of the South China Sea and stop following the wrong path,” the Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday. Outdoors, Zhao Lijian.
