U. S. sail- by of isle still galls in China
No threat intended, admiral says in Beijing; both sides speak of building trust
BEIJING — The U. S. Navy’s challenge last week to China’s sovereignty claims in the South China Sea was not designed as a military threat, the head of U. S. Pacific military forces said Tuesday in a speech about preventing U. S.- China disputes from escalating to conflict.
In separate meetings of military officials from the two nations later Tuesday — one in Beijing and one in Malaysia — top Chinese officials again expressed their country’s pique over the U. S. warship sailing past Chinese- built islands, while also expressing hope that the two sides could build further trust.
Speaking at a university in the Chinese capital, Adm. Harry Harris Jr. cited a recent statement by U. S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter that the international order “faces challenges from Russia and, in a different way, from China, with its ambiguous maritime claims.”
However, Harris said the decision to send the USS Lassen, a guided- missile destroyer, into the South China Sea last week near Subi Reef, within the 12- nautical- mile territorial limit claimed by China, was meant to demonstrate the principle of freedom of navigation.
“I truly believe that these routine operations should never be construed as a threat to any nation,” Harris said, according to his prepared remarks.
“We’ve been conducting freedom- of- navigation operations all over the world for decades, so no one should be surprised by them,” Harris said. “The South China Sea is not, and will not, be an exception.”
Harris emphasized that the United States had carried out such operations around the world “while avoiding mili- tary conflict, and that remains our goal.”
China at the time protested the Lassen patrol, calling it a “deliberate provocation,” and sent two warships to shadow the U. S. vessel and issue warnings. Although China labeled the action illegal, international law allows warships to transit other countries’ territorial seas under the principle of “innocent passage.”
In a meeting later Tuesday in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, Chinese Defense Minister Chang Wanquan reiterated China’s view that the Lassen patrol was illegal, according to two senior U. S. defense officials who attended the meeting and briefed reporters afterward on condition of anonymity.
The U. S. officials said Chang told Carter that China’s activities in the South China Sea are mainly defensive in nature, and that for China there is a “bottom line” on U. S. challenges to China’s territorial claims there. The officials said Chang did not elaborate, and his remark was not interpreted as a threat of any kind.
Carter and Chang spoke for 40 minutes on the sidelines of an Asia defense ministers gathering. Carter’s
spokesman, Peter Cook, said the defense secretary accepted a Chinese invitation to visit Beijing next spring.
At the meeting Tuesday in Beijing between Harris and Gen. Fang Fenghui, chief of general staff for China’s military, Fang said the sailing of the U. S. vessel had cast a shadow on the talks and reiterated Chinese claims to South China Sea territory since “ancient times.”
According to the website of the Chinese military’s flagship newspaper, The People’s Liberation Daily, Fang told Harris that the U. S. warship had posed a threat to China’s territorial sovereignty and could “easily trigger miscalculations and accidents.”
Fang went on to say that “it is my hope that we can enhance mutual understanding and trust and remove negative effects.”
In his speech earlier Tuesday, Harris said the U. S. does not want disagreements to interfere with opportunities for building closer militaryto- military ties with China. He cited recent advances, such as a Military Maritime Consultative Agreement on measures to improve safe military operations in the Asia- Pacific.
Harris has been outspoken in his criticisms of China’s land reclamation in the South China Sea. In March, he said China is “creating a great wall of sand” that is causing serious concern about militarizing reefs and artificial islands in an area of competing territorial claims by several nations. China and five other governments claim the South China Sea either in part or in whole.
The U. S. does not recognize the man- made features as legitimate islands entitled to territorial seas, and U. S. officials say they plan to patrol near them on a regular basis to enforce that view. China has reclaimed approximately 2,000 acres of land in the Spratly island chain since last year.
Harris spoke Tuesday to Stanford University students studying at Peking University in Beijing. He is in Beijing on his first visit as commander of U. S. Pacific Command, which is responsible for U. S. military operations throughout the Asia- Pacific. International media were not invited to the speech, but a copy of his prepared remarks was provided to reporters traveling with Carter in Malaysia.
A transcript released afterward indicated that Harris took questions from the audience, but the contents of that discussion were not available, a spokesman at the U. S. Embassy said.