US, Chinese navy chiefs...

the South China Sea as well as naval ties, the official said. It will be the third such video teleconference between naval chiefs from the United States and China.

Beijing rebuked Washington for sending a guided-missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles of one of China’s man-made islands in the Spratly archipelago on Tuesday, saying it had tracked and warned the USS Lassen and called in the US ambassador to protest.

The patrol was the most significant US challenge yet to territorial limits China claims around its artificial islands in one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.

Unnecessary delays

The US naval challenge to China’s territorial assertiveness in the South China Sea came after months of frustration within the Pentagon at what some defense officials saw as unnecessary delays by the White House and State Department in approving the mission.

As early as mid-May, the Pentagon was considering sending military aircraft and ships to assert the principle of freedom of navigation around China’s artificial islands in the Spratly archipelago after Defense Secretary Ash Carter requested options to respond to their rapid construction.

That patrol eventually took place on Tuesday when the USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef.

An intense, prolonged internal U.S. debate over the patrol revealed by Reuters’ reporting appears to contradict Washington’s insistence that it was simply another routine freedom-of-navigation operation.

Leeway for Beijing

The months leading up to the patrol allowed Beijing to harden its stance and, according to some US officials and security experts, blew the operation out of proportion.

Washington’s caution also caused disquiet among some military officials in Japan and the Philippines, both US security allies, feeding concerns that China’s ambitions in the South China Sea would go unchecked.

The Pentagon and US military officials had been ready for months to carry out patrols, but ran into “repeated stalling” from the White House and State Department, said one US defense official, who requested anonymity.

Both wanted to avoid giving the appearance that any operation was in response to other events, the official said, such as the breach of 21 million US personnel records that has been linked to hackers in China. China has denied involvement in the attack. ”The concern was that, if we looked like we were responding to something the Chinese had done, it would undermine our assertion that this is a matter of international law, and our rights to navigate the seas,” said the official.

Core interests collide

“Neither the US nor China desires a military conflict, but the key problem is that the core interests of both sides collide in the South China Sea,” said Ni Lexiong, a naval expert at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law. “It’s hard to see either side backing down.”

Separately, the English-language China Daily newspaper reported that Admiral Harry Harris, commander of US forces in the Pacific, would visit Beijing next week. It cited an unnamed source and gave no further details.

A US embassy spokesman declined to comment.

Harris has been highly critical of China’s island building in the Spratlys. Earlier this year he said China was using dredges and bulldozers to create a “great wall of sand” in the South China Sea.

China rotates a large number of naval and coastguard vessels through the South China Sea, both for patrols and training missions, security experts say.

Chinese state media on Thursday said a “guided-missile destroyer flotilla” under the navy’s South China Sea Fleet carried out a “realistic confrontation training exercise” involving anti-aircraft firing and firing at shore at night.

A state-owned news website carried photos from the drills, saying they took place recently in the South China Sea. One photo showed three warships sailing one after the other.

Military exercises

Despite criticism of China’s actions in the South China Sea, foreign navies from the United States to Europe have sought to build ties with their Chinese counterparts.

A French frigate docked at China’s main South China Sea base of Zhanjiang in the southern province of Guangdong on Wednesday on a four-day visit. It will participate in a maritime exercise about accidental encounters at sea.

Two Australian warships will also hold exercises with the Chinese navy in the South China Sea early next week, Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne said on Thursday.

“There have been no changes or delays to the schedule of the HMAS Arunta and HMAS Stuart since the United States activity in the South China Sea on 27 October 2015,” Payne said in a statement that gave no details on the precise location for the exercise.

Australian media said it would include live-fire drills.

Canberra, a key US ally in the region, expressed its strong support for freedom of navigation this week, while stopping short of welcoming the USS Lassen’s patrol.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of world trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.