Special to WorldTribune.com
Pentagon officials are planning to send U.S. warships near artificial islands built by China in the South China Sea if the White House approves, officials told the Navy Times.
A U.S. defense official said that the U.S. ships would navigate within 12-nautical-mile zones around the artificial islands in the Spratly chain that China claims as its territory.
On Oct. 7, Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, told a maritime conference in Australia that “some nations” were behaving in a manner inconsistent with international law, a clear reference to China.
“It’s my sense that some nations view freedom of the seas as up for grabs, as something that can be taken down and redefined by domestic law or by reinterpreting international law,” Swift said, according to a report by Reuters.
“Some nations continue to impose superfluous warnings and restrictions on freedom of the seas in their exclusive economic zones and claim territorial water rights that are inconsistent with (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). This trend is particularly egregious in contested waters.”
Experts on the South China Sea and some U.S. officials have pointed out that Beijing has already begun construction of military facilities on the islands.
Last month U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said the United States would “fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as U.S. forces do all over the world.”
Admiral Harry Harris, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said during congressional testimony on Sept. 17 that the U.S. should challenge China’s claim to territory in the South China Sea by patrolling close to the artificial islands.
China claims most of the South China Sea, where the Spratly islands are located while the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims.
China’s navy issued a series of warnings to the crew of a U.S. P8-A Poseidon surveillance aircraft in May when it conducted flights near the artificial islands, according to CNN.
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