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The destroyer USS John S. McCain passes through the South China Sea on December 22 – Photo: US Navy.
“China’s statement on this mission is false. The destroyer USS John S. McCain has not been ‘banished’ from the territory of any country” – Joe, spokesman for the US Navy Seventh Fleet Keiley, insisting December 23th.
A day earlier, the US Pacific fleet said the destroyer USS John S. McCain had a patrol “asserting freedom and rights of navigation near the Spratly Islands.”
On the same day of December 22, Mr. Tian Jun Li, spokesman for the Southern War Zone of the Chinese army, said that Chinese naval and air forces had “monitored the American destroyers in both prosecuting and warning, driving them away” . This man defiantly said that US actions damage China’s so-called “sovereignty and security.”
Bed sheet The Hoan Cau Times China also shook off the headline: “Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) drives out American warships into the East Sea.
However, according to the American military newspaper Stars and stripesSeventh Fleet spokesman Joe Keiley said: “The USS John S. McCain has conducted this free sailing patrol in accordance with international law and has continued to conduct normal operations in international waters.”
Ryan T. Easterday, commander of the destroyer USS John S. McCain, observed how the ship was operating in the South China Sea on December 22 – Photo: US Navy.
Keiley said the statement “driving away” the earlier USS John S. McCain was in “a long series of actions by China to distort US maritime activities and enforce illegal maritime claims and its excesses” in the China Sea. Southern.
Over the years, China has illegally built artificial islands in the Spratly under the sovereignty of Vietnam, ignoring international law and opposition from other countries. Beijing has also built runways, other constructions, and militarized these entities.
The Seventh Fleet spokesman said the operation of the USS John S. McCain near the Spratly Islands on Dec. 22 reflected the United States Navy’s commitment to protecting the freedom of navigation and the legal use of the waters. . area, see this as the rule.
“The United States will continue to ship ships, aircraft and operate where international law allows, just as the USS John S. McCain did here,” emphasized Mr. Joe Keiley, saying that China Quoc’s behavior is the opposite of compliance. of the United States with international law.