China Summons US Ambassador to Protest Ship Near Reef
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – China summoned the American ambassador to protest the US Navy's sailing of a warship close to one of China's disputed islands in the South China Sea, in an act that challenged Chinese sovereignty claims.
China's Foreign Ministry said on its website Wednesday that Executive Vice Minister Zhang Yesui told Max Bacaus that the US had acted in defiance of repeated Chinese objections and had threatened China's sovereignty and security. While offering no details, Zhang said Tuesday's "provocative" maneuver also placed personnel and infrastructure on the island in jeopardy.
China was "extremely dissatisfied and a resolutely opposed" the US actions, the ministry said. The US State Department declined to confirm the Tuesday meeting, or comment on any remarks made on the issue.
China says authorities monitored and warned the destroyer USS Lassen as it entered a 12-mile (21-kilometer) territorial limit around Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands archipelago, a group of reefs, islets, and atolls where the Philippines has competing claims.
The US says it doesn't take a position on sovereignty over the South China Sea but insists on freedom of navigation and overflight. About 30 percent of global trade passes through the South China Sea, which also has rich fishing grounds and a potential wealth of undersea mineral deposits.
China says it respects the right of navigation but has never specified the exact legal status of its maritime claims. China says virtually all of the South China Sea belongs to it, while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim either parts or all of it.
Speaking to foreign correspondents in Manila, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said he supported the US naval maneuvers as an assertion of freedom of navigation and as a means to balance power in the region.
"I think expressing support for established norms of international behavior should not be a negative for a country," he said. "I think everybody would welcome a balance of power anywhere in the world."
Without identifying China by name, he said "one regional power" has been making "controversial pronouncements" that must not be left unchallenged.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said China adhered to international law regarding freedom of navigation and flight, but "resolutely opposes the damaging of China's sovereignty and security interests in the name of free navigation and flight."
"China will firmly deal with provocations from other countries," the statement said, adding that China would continue to monitor the air and sea and take further action when necessary.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said such actions by the US might end up spurring further advances in Chinas defense capabilities.
"If any country wishes to disrupt or impede China's reasonable, justifiable and lawful activities on our own territories by playing some little tricks, I would advise these countries to cast off this fantasy," Lu said.
The South China Sea has become an increasingly sore point in relations with the United States, even as President Barack Obama and China's President Xi Jinping have sought to deepen cooperation in other areas.
Despite those tensions, exchanges between the two militaries have continued to expand, with a US Navy delegation paying visits last week to China's sole aircraft carrier and a submarine warfare academy.