China on high alert after US ship sails near disputed island
Chinese forces are on high alert in the South China Sea after a United States naval ship sailed close to a tiny disputed island that is becoming the focus of international tension in the strategic sea lane.
Beijing reacted angrily to the passage of the USS Gabrielle Giffords, a coastal combat ship, through waters close to Second Thomas Shoal, part of the Spratly Islands.
In another part of the Spratlys, the Philippines has sent two of its coast guard vessels in response to a swarm of what it said were Chinese militia vessels massing in the area of Whitsun Reef.
Trillions of US dollars of international trade is sailed through the South China Sea every year, including the oil and natural gas that fuels the economies of China, Japan and South Korea.
China claims sovereignty over virtually all of it, and defiantly rejects a ruling in 2016 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that struck down its claims to rocks and reefs close to the Philippines.
In 1999 the Philippines deliberately grounded the Sierra Madre, a World War II naval ship, on Second Thomas Shoal to assert its sovereignty over the small reef. The rusting hulk serves as a de facto base for an isolated detachment of Philippine marines.
In recent months, Manila has repeatedly complained that ships sent to resupply these troops have been harassed and intimidated by Chinese vessels.
The American vessel was sent in what the country calls a freedom of navigation operation intended to assert the right to free passage, and show its support for the Philippines and its defiance of China’s exclusive claims.
“The US deliberately disrupted the situation in the South China Sea, seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security, seriously undermined regional peace and stability, and seriously violated international law and basic norms governing international relations,” a statement by the southern theatre command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army said. “The US is the biggest threat to peace and stability in the South China Sea.
“[Chinese] troops in the theatre are on high alert at all times to resolutely defend national sovereignty.”
The US 7th Fleet said that the goal of the Gabrielle Giffords was “upholding a free and open Indo-Pacific region where all nations, large and small, are secure in their sovereignty, can resolve disputes without coercion, and have the freedom to navigate and fly consistent with international laws, rules and norms”.
Meanwhile, the Philippine coast guard said yesterday that it had dispatched two ships to Whitsun Reef to observe more than 135 vessels, the latest Chinese fleet to be seen massing in the area.
Beijing insists that the vessels are fishing boats, lawfully going about their business in Chinese maritime territory. The Philippine Government and independent analysts say they are vessels of the People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia, which is part of the Chinese armed forces.
China has already turned seven disputed reefs into military bases in recent years. The suspicion is that the latest manoeuvres are a prelude to a similar seizure of Whitsun Reef. - The Times