BEIJING (AP) – The US Navy sailed a destroyer on Wednesday near China-controlled islands in the South China Sea in what Washington says was a patrol aimed at ensuring freedom of navigation through the strategic seaway.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold sailed past the Paracel Islands and then continued operations in the South China Sea.
The operation “maintained the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea,” the 7th Fleet said in a press release.
Such operations are considered essential to the US Navy maintaining its presence in the Indo-Pacific, where China has increased its presence through a massive shipbuilding campaign.
Beijing has also alarmed the US, Australia and New Zealand with the signing of a reciprocal defense agreement with the Solomon Islands, under which it could receive Chinese troops in an emergency and potentially establish a permanent Chinese military presence.
In response to the passage of the Benfold, China’s southern theater command monitored the ship’s movements and ordered it to leave the area, Air Force Colonel Tian Junli said on the Defense Ministry website.
“Our forces in the military area are on high alert at all times to ensure national sovereignty, security and peace and stability in the South China Sea,” the ministry said.
China claims ownership of virtually the entire strategic waterway, which passes through approximately $5 trillion in global trade annually and contains highly valuable fish stocks and undersea mineral resources. The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan also make competing claims to the region.
The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan has also been deployed in the South China Sea along with its attack group, which includes the guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam and the guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins.
“Our presence in the South China Sea demonstrates America’s commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Captain Fred Goldhammer, commander of the Ronald Reagan, said in a press release.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Wednesday reiterated China’s rejection of a 2016 Hague arbitration ruling filed by the Philippines under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which depicts the vast invalidated Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.
“China neither accepts nor acknowledges (the verdict). China will never accept any claim or action based on this award,” Wang said at a daily briefing.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday called on China to abide by the ruling, warning that Washington is obligated to defend treaty ally the Philippines if its troops, ships or aircraft are attacked in the disputed waters.
While China has publicly pursued closer ties with the Philippine government, it has acted aggressively to assert its control in disputed waters with its vastly superior coastguard and naval assets.
Dozens of left-wing activists and workers protested in front of the Chinese consulate in Manila’s Makati financial district on Tuesday, asking Beijing to respect the arbitration ruling and asking newly elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to defend the territory and sovereign rights of the country in the south. China Sea.
Washington does not lay claim to the disputed waters, but has used naval ships and air force aircraft for decades to patrol the waterway and says freedom of navigation and overflight is in the US national interest. China has reacted angrily by accusing the US of meddling in a purely Asian dispute and demanding it leave the region where it has had a naval presence for more than a century.
