The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S., Chinese warships nearly collide near disputed islets
BEIJING — The United States and China traded new accusations over naval operations in the South China Sea on Tuesday after warships from each country came perilously close to colliding in the disputed waters.
The Pentagon accused the Chinese navy of using “an unsafe and unprofessional maneuver” when one of its destroyers challenged a U.S. destroyer, the USS Decatur, as it sailed Sunday near one of the disputed islets that China claims in the Spratly archipelago.
The Chinese ship “conducted a series of increasingly aggressive maneuvers,” coming within 45 yards of the bow of the Decatur, a guided-missile cruiser on what the Pentagon described as a routine mission in international waters.
The Chinese navy’s actions forced the Decatur to maneuver to avoid a collision, a spokesman for the Pacific Fleet, Capt. Charlie Brown, said in a statement.
As tensions have increased over trade and other issues, the United States and other nations have intensified naval and aerial patrols in the sea to signal that the territories there remain in international waters. Britain, France and Japan have also conducted operations there in recent months, creating what many in China view as a coordinated campaign.
China’s defense and foreign ministries each released statements Tuesday sharply criticizing the United States, though not disputing details of the U.S. accusations involv- ing the Decatur.
“The United States has repeatedly sent military ships to South China Sea islands and its adjacent waters, threatened China’s sovereignty and security, seriously damaged the relations between the two countries and militaries, and endangered regional peace and stability,” Senior Col. Wu Qian, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defense, said in a statement.
In 2016, an arbitration pan e l under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, ruling in an appeal brought by the Phil- ippines, did not support Chi- na’s claims to Gaven Reef, among other shoals and mar- itime features in the sea. China has ignored the rul- ing, however, and the for- tification of seven artificial islands it has built there has made Chinese control of those waters virtually a fait accompli.
China once brushed aside U.S. accusations of “militarizing” the South China Sea — something the country’s leader, Xi Jinping, vowed publicly not to do during an appearance with President Barack Obama in 2015.
In recent months, though, officials in Beijing have shifted the focus of their arguments. They now cite patrols like the one on Sunday as justifi- cation for the installation of defensive weaponry there. In his statement, Wu called on the United States to end its “unlawful provocations” against China’s sovereignty.
The United States has for years routinely patrolled the seas as part of what it calls “freedom of navigation oper- ations.” The patrols, officials say, are not intended to chal- lenge any claims but rather to assert the right to “innocent passage” within the 12 nautical miles of a coastline that are considered territorial waters under international law.
With an ambitious naval modernization program well underway, China has become increasingly assertive in challenging patrols in the Spratlys and the Paracels, another disputed archipelago to the north.