‘The US severely undermined peace’: China says it ‘drove away’ US warship in South China Sea
By Reuters and Bloomberg
China’s military said on Wednesday it monitored and “drove away” a US destroyer that sailed near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the busy waterway of the South China Sea, while the US Navy said its action was in line with international law.
The first known American military operation in at least six years within the shoal’s waters came a day after the Philippines accused Chinese vessels of “dangerous manoeuvres and unlawful interference” during a supply mission around the atoll.
The USS Higgins is shown passing through the Taiwan Strait in 2022.Credit: AP
In a statement, the Chinese military’s Southern Theatre Command said the USS Higgins had entered the waters “without approval of the Chinese government” on Wednesday.
“The US move seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security, severely undermined peace and stability in the South China Sea,” it added, vowing to keep a “high alert at all times”.
The US Navy’s Seventh Fleet said the Higgins had “asserted navigational rights and freedoms” near the Scarborough Shoal “consistent with international law”.
The mission was meant to challenge restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China and Taiwan, it said. The Higgins exited what the US called the excessive maritime claim area upon completing the operation and continued routine operations in the South China Sea.
“China’s statement about this mission is false,” US Seventh Fleet spokesperson Lieutenant Sarah Merrill said in an emailed response to a Bloomberg query. “Nothing China says otherwise will deter us.”
“The operations demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows – regardless of the location of excessive maritime claims and regardless of current events,” Merrill added.
The USS Higgins is an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, despite overlapping claims by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The US regularly carries out “freedom of navigation” operations in the South China Sea, challenging what it says are curbs on innocent passage imposed by China and other claimants.
The Scarborough Shoal has been a major source of tension in the strategic South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.
The actions of Chinese vessels in the shoal this week also resulted in a collision of two of them, Manila said, the first such known in the area.
China’s coast guard said it had taken “necessary measures” to expel Philippine vessels from the waters.
In 2016, an international arbitral tribunal ruled there was no basis in international law for Beijing’s claims, based on its historic maps. China does not, however, recognise that decision.
Reuters, Bloomberg
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