US accused of trespass in South China Sea
Print Edition
CHINA has accused the United States of trespassing in its territorial waters when a US guided-missile destroyer sailed near Huangyan Island in the South China Sea.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China would take “necessary measures” to protect its sovereignty after the USS Hopper sailed within 12 nautical miles — an internationally recognized territorial limit — of Huangyan last Wednesday evening without China’s permission.
Lu said the USS Hopper violated China’s sovereignty and security interests and threatened the safety of Chinese vessels and personnel.
The Chinese Navy ordered the vessel to withdraw after determining its identity, he added.
Defense ministry spokesman Wu Qian said a Chinese missile frigate moved to identify and verify the US vessel and warned it to leave the area.
“We hope that the US respects China’s sovereignty, respects the efforts by regional countries and do not make trouble out of nothing,” Wu said in a statement on the ministry’s website.
China’s defense ministry said the repeated dispatch of US warships to the region was “undermining regional peace and stability” and hurting bilateral relations.
The US Navy regularly sails through the area to assert so-called “freedom of navigation.”
“The United States conducts routine (operations) as we have done in the past and will continue to do so in the future,” said Lieutenant Commander Nicole Schwegman, a spokeswoman for the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet.
Lu said China “firmly opposes” efforts to use freedom of navigation as an excuse to hurt its sovereignty and urged the US to “correct its mistakes.”
The US military put countering China and Russia at the center of a new national defense strategy unveiled on Friday. China criticized the strategy, saying Beijing sought “global partnership, not global dominance.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
