China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Monday “drove away” a United States (US) warship from waters of the South China Sea that Beijing considers to be a part of its territory.
Chinese state-owned media house Global Times quoted the spokesperson of the PLA’s Southern Theater Command, Senior Colonel Tian Junli, as saying that the US guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold had illegally trespassed into China’s territorial waters of Xisha without authorisation from the Chinese government. He added that his command organised maritime and aerial forces to track and monitor the warship and successfully expelled it. “We strongly condemn this and are firmly against it. We urge the US to immediately stop this kind of provocations and strictly manage its maritime and aerial military activities, or it will be the US to bear any consequences,” Tian warned.
Moreover, he said the Xisha Islands (also known as the Paracel Islands), whose ownership is disputed by Taiwan and Vietnam, are an “inherent territory of China”, and that the US military’s move “seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security, damaged peace and stability in the South China Sea, and violated international law and norms of international relations.” He concluded by saying that “facts show that the US is the true maker of security risks in the South China Sea.”
In response, the US Navy said that the Benfold simply asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the vicinity of the Paracel Islands consistent with international law. “Under international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention, the ships of all states, including their warships, enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea,” the US Navy stated.
Before the incursion, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement on Sunday warning China that the US could invoke the US-Philippine mutual defence pact if the Chinese military takes any action against the Philippines’ assets in the region. Referring to its Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the Philippines, Blinken said: “We reaffirm that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the South China Sea would invoke US mutual defence commitments under Article IV of the 1951 US-Philippines Mutual Defence Treaty.” In addition, he called on China to “abide by its obligations under international law (and) cease its provocative behaviour.”
While responding to Blinken’s comments on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said, “Anyone with a discerning eye can easily see that the arbitration is a political farce which is initiated and manipulated by the US to smear and suppress China. The political agenda of the US to hype up the South China Sea issue by taking advantage of the 5th anniversary of the illegal award can’t be more obvious.”
Meanwhile, fighter bombers of the PLA Navy Aviation Forces recently held training exercises to set up maritime blockades by airdropping sea mines. Analysts say that the tactic can effectively deter and slow down hostile warships.
The recent event coincides with the fifth anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) ruling on China’s claims against the Philippines in the South China Sea. The panel ruled that China’s claims of “historic” rights within the nine-dash line, which Beijing uses to outline its claims in the disputed South China Sea, were without legal foundation. It also found that Beijing’s activities, such as illegal fishing and the construction of environmentally harmful artificial islands, within the Philippines’ two-hundred-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf violated Manila’s sovereign rights. China has dismissed the ruling as “nothing more than a piece of waste paper” and continues its aggressive provocations in the region.