WASHINGTON — A Navy destroyer will sail as early as Tuesday within 12 miles of manmade islands built by China in the South China Sea, a move meant as a U.S. rebuff of Beijing’s territorial and maritime claims in the
WASHINGTON — A Navy destroyer will sail as early as Tuesday within 12 miles of manmade islands built by China in the South China Sea, a move meant as a U.S. rebuff of Beijing’s territorial and maritime claims in the disputed waters, a senior U.S. defense official said.
The White House approved the planned patrol near Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly Islands to assert the U.S. position that they lie in international waters where ships from all countries are free to travel, said the official, who asked not to be identified to discuss military operations.
The move risks provoking a confrontation with China’s military and could raise diplomatic tensions with Beijing weeks before President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who met last month in Washington, are expected to attend four major summit meetings in Asia.
The patrol by the guided missile destroyer Lassen will mark the first time a Navy warship has sailed within the 12-mile territorial limit that China has claimed for half a dozen reefs and shoals that it has been building up into islands. U.S surveillance aircraft may also breach the 12-mile territorial limit claimed by China.
Because of uncertainty about how China will respond, the Lassen and any U.S. military aircraft that join the operation will be on a heightened state of alert, the official said.
U.S. officials emphasize that the manmade islands do not constitute sovereign territory under international law and cannot be used to assert claims to territorial waters.
A Chinese navy dispatcher demanded in May that a U.S. Air Force P8-A Poseidon surveillance aircraft leave the area as it flew over Fiery Cross Reef, where China has conducted extensive reclamation work on what it claims as sovereign territory.
More than $5 trillion worth of world trade passes through the South China Sea every year, making it one of the world’s busiest waterways.
“There are billions of dollars of commerce that flow through that region of the world every year,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday. “Ensuring the free flow of this commerce and that freedom of navigation of those vessels is protected is critically important to the global economy.”
The Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and other countries claim parts of the South China Sea, which has significant oil and gas deposits, and have undertaken their own dredging projects on reefs and shoals over the years.
The U.S. has long refused to take a position on the sometimes overlapping claims. But the White House has challenged China’s claim of virtually the entire sea as its territory. Beijing has rebuffed calls for international mediation to settle the territorial and maritime disputes.
Since the U.S. began signaling earlier this month that it was planning to send a warship near the islands, some Chinese officials have warned that its armed forces would defend their territorial claims, while others have said that they would merely monitor U.S. vessels and aircraft.
It’s rare for the Pentagon to telegraph in advance such a sensitive military move. The Navy conducts dozens of so-called freedom of navigation operations around the world every year, sending ships into disputed maritime areas, usually with no notice, to underscore U.S. claims that they are international waters.
The Lassen spent four weeks in the South China Sea earlier this month and was trailed at times by Chinese navy vessels. But the U.S. warship did not come within 12 miles of any of the islands being constructed by China, officials said.
Dredging at Subi and Mischief reefs, once little more than coral outcroppings that were mostly submerged at high tide, has dramatically expanded them over the last two years, according to an analysis of satellite pictures by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
Mischief Reef is now estimated to be 6.5 million square yards in area and Subi is estimated at 4.7 million square yards. But neither has progressed as much as Fiery Cross Reef, where China is building a 10,000-foot runway potentially usable by military planes.
By choosing to patrol near less built-up islands, the U.S. may be hoping to avoid a confrontation with China.
But Beijing has also had time to position naval and coast guard forces in the vicinity so that it can shadow or potentially harass U.S. ships that cross the 12-mile line.
