Testing the 12-mile limit of China’s new artificially created islands in the South China Sea, a U.S. guided-missile destroyer passed too close for comfort, prompting an angry response from Beijing. For the past two years, China’s been dredging out and building artificial islands on shallow reefs in the Spratly archipelago, spanning the South China sea on the East between Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei and to the West to Philippines. What concerns the Oceania region of sovereign states is the potential militarization of China’s island-building projects in unrestricted commercial international waterways in the South China Sea. Concerns expressed by the U.S. and South Asian nations over “freedom of navigation” have been rebuffed by China, growing increasingly muscular in the region. China expressed outrage over ordinary U.S. naval surveillance in the region.
Meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House Sept. 25, Chinese President Xi Jinping reassured the president that China’s island-building projects in the South China Sea were for commercial, non-military purposes. Sending a guided missile destroyer to track U.S. naval maneuvers, China said it would defends its sovereignty “according to the law.” U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea specifically states that a 12-mile nautical mile limit does not apply to man-made islands built off submerged reefs. China called U.S. naval surveillance “coercive action that seeks to militarize the South China Sea region,” blaming the U.S. for violating “freedom of navigation” under international law. International navigation law gives any sovereign nation the right to patrol international waterways. Building military-type landing strips on man-made islands militarizes their use.
China’s gone on the defensive blaming the U.S. navy for traveling outside a 12-milee limit, when, the international rule on man-made islands does not give China a 12-mile limit. Passing within 12-miles of one of China’s artificial islands, the U.S.S. Lassen did not violate international law. Calling U.S. actions “extremely irresponsible,” China’s Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui summoned U.S. China Amb. Max Baucus, insisting the U.S. encroached on China’s territorial boundaries. Foreign Minister spokesman Lu Kang blamed the U.S. for continuing “to create tensions in the region,” not specifying what the U.S. had done to violate any international treaties. Passing through any international waterway is the right of any commercial or military vessel. Kang said China would continue to beef up naval operations in the South China Sea to deal with U.S. provocations.
Insisting the U.S.S. Lassen was well outside the 12-mile limit, that doesn’t apply to man-made islands, a U.S. defense official said U.S. naval surveillance was a usual-and-customary naval operation. “I would expect that this becomes a regular operation in the South China Sea,” said the Pentagon official. “This type of operation shouldn’t be seen as provocation,” showing a disconnect with the Pentagon. Beijing sees any presence of U.S. naval forces in the South China Sea as an intrusion into sovereign territory. Prompting China’s navy to warn the U.S. that it would take measures to protect China’s security, the Pentagon better think twice before pushing Beijing to the brink. Despite promising Obama that China’s man-made islands would not be used for military purposes, it’s obvious that the region has a problem. Resolving the issue can only happen in the U.N. Security Council.
Playing a game of chicken with the U.S. navy won’t resolve the current dispute with China’s artificial islands in the Spratly chain. Convening the Security Council is the only way to spell out to China U.N. rules on international waters. Sovereign nations of the region must raise objections and force China to accept appropriate international rules. Whether the U.S. navy is in the right or not, pushing China into aggressive action could trigger a wider conflict. Raising objections in the Security Council to China’s territorial claims to the South China Sea is the only way to get Beijing to back down from its current aggression. Suggesting that U.S. doesn’t have the right to “freedom of navigation” in international waters, wherever, is outrageous. China’s Foreign Ministry is out of line accusing the U.S. of “provocation” when it’s conducting routine naval surveillance in international waters.
Ratcheting up the rhetoric, Beijing must be told by the Security Council that it has no right to impede naval operations of any sovereign state in international waters. Creating at least three man-made islands in the Spratlys, China denies any military operations. U.S. satellite and spy-plane reconnaissance shows that Beijing’s building at least three 10,000 meter airstrips. Neighboring South China Sea countries fear that China plans to use the man-made islands to control the waterway through which $3 trillion of commerce travels yearly. “Both sides will be quite verbal but real actions, I hope, will show signs of exercising restraint,” said Zhu Feng, executive director for China Center for Collaborative Sudies of the South China Sea at Nanjing University. However reassuring, U.S. Amb. Susan Powers should take the South China Sea issue up in the Security Council before an accident happens.
