- The US Navy conducted a “freedom of navigation operation” (FONOP) near the Spratly Islands.
- Saturday’s operation was the fourth FONOP challenging Chinese claims this year.
- It is the second such operation for the USS Benfold in the last four days.
The US 7th Fleet said in a statement that a US Navy warship challenged Chinese claims to disputed islands in the South China Sea on Saturday, the second such operation this week.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold conducted a “freedom of navigation operation” (FONOP) near the Spratly Islands, also known as the Nansha Islands in China, in the southeastern South China Sea, according to a 7th Fleet statement.
According to the statement, the US Navy operation in the island chain where China has built military fortifications on man-made islands challenged “restrictions on innocent passage imposed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Vietnam, and Taiwan.”
“In violation of international law, the PRC, Vietnam, and Taiwan purport to require either permission or advance notification before a military vessel engages in ‘innocent passage’ through the territorial sea of the relevant feature,” it added.
The waters within 12 nautical miles of a nation’s coastline, as defined by international law, are referred to as the “territorial sea.”
The Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei all claim sovereignty over parts of the Spratly Islands, but the US Navy statement made no mention of them.
According to Navy statements, Saturday’s operation was the fourth FONOP challenging Chinese claims this year and the second such operation for the Benfold in the last four days.
It carried out the same mission on Wednesday in the Paracel Islands, a chain in the northern South China Sea known as the Xisha Islands in China and claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.
On Wednesday, Beijing reacted angrily to the US Navy’s Paracels FONOP.
“The actions of the US military have seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security, seriously undermined the peace and stability of the South China Sea, and seriously violated international law and norms of international relations,” People’s Liberaton Army (PLA) Air Force Col. Tian Junli, spokesman for the Southern Theater Command, said in a statement.
“Facts once again demonstrate that the United States is an outright ‘South China Sea Risk Maker’ and ‘Disruptor of Regional Peace and Stability,'” the PLA said in a statement.
However, Washington claims that China and others imposing excessive maritime claims “pose a serious threat to the freedom of the seas, including the freedoms of navigation and overflight, free trade and unimpeded commerce, and freedom of economic opportunity.”
