Latest US provocation in S.China Sea is a serious strategic mistake: expert

By Song Shengxia and Yang Sheng Source:Global Times Published: 2017/5/25 14:34:12

The US’ recent military actions in the South China Sea are a “serious strategic mistake” and China will not tolerate the “provocative attempts” and will take countermeasures including following and driving away US warships to safeguard its maritime security interests, Chinese military strategists said Thursday.

A US Navy guided missile destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island built up by China in the South China Sea, US officials said on Wednesday, the first challenge to China in the South China Sea since US President Donald Trump took office, Reuters reported.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “the USS Dewey traveled close to the Mischief Reef [the Meiji Reef] in the Spratly Islands [the Nansha Islands], among a string of islets, reefs and shoals over which China has territorial disputes with its neighbors,” according to Reuters.

“We operate in the Asia-Pacific region on a daily basis, including in the South China Sea,” Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, was quoted as saying by the Financial Times.

“We operate in accordance with international law. We fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows. Freedom of navigation is not about any one country, or any one body of water,” he said.

Such an act carried out in the name of a “routine patrol” or a “freedom of navigation operation” is a “huge strategic mistake” by the US military and by sailing within 12 nautical miles of the Meiji Reef the US Navy infringed on China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights in the South China Sea, Peng Guangqian, a military strategist at the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Academy of Military Science, told the Global Times on Thursday.

China will not tolerate any such provocation and will take actions such as driving the warship away from the Meiji Reef area, Peng said.

This is not the first time the US has made such moves in the South China Sea.

Last May, the US guided missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence sailed into Chinese waters near the Nansha Islands without the permission of the Chinese government.

This latest move is first provocation by the US since President Trump took office, coming after Sino-US ties showed signs of stabilization after Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Trump met in early April and the two leaders exchanged views over bilateral ties and the situation on the Korean Peninsula via telephone.

China started construction on the Meiji Reef since 2015 and in July 2016 the country successfully landed aircraft on the airport there, in the heart of South China Sea.

“A flight took off from Haikou, capital of South China’s Hainan Province, at 8:30 am and landed on Meiji Reef two hours later” on July 13, 2016, according to the Ministry of Transportation, the Xinhua News Agency reported at the time.

President Xi on Wednesday called for efforts to build the People’s Liberation Army Navy into a strong and modern force to lend support for the realization of the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation and the dream of a strong army, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *