Special to WorldTribune.com
China warned against any “provocative actions” in what it claims as its territorial waters a day after the Pentagon said it was considering sending warships close to China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea.
A U.S. defense official on Oct. 8 said that American ships would navigate within 12-nautical-mile zones around the artificial islands in the South China Sea’s Spratly chain.
“We will never allow any country to violate China’s territorial waters and airspace in the Spratly Islands, in the name of protecting freedom of navigation and overflight,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Oct. 9.
“We urge the related parties not to take any provocative actions, and genuinely take a responsible stance on regional peace and stability.”
Related: Pentagon set to send U.S. warships to China’s artificial islands,Oct. 8, 2015
Beijing claims most of the South China Sea as its territory, but the U.S. has said it does not recognize those claims and U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said America will “fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as U.S. forces do all over the world.”
The U.S. and its close allies in Asia are opposed to China’s ongoing construction on man-made islands in the South China Sea and have called on Beijing to stop the buildup. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all have territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has said Beijing is not militarizing the islands, but a number of experts on the situation in the South China Sea, along with some U.S. officials, say China has already started constructing military facilities on the islands.
In a speech to the Aspen Security Forum in July, Adm. Harry Harris, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said China was building hangars on Fiery Cross Reef that appeared to be for tactical fighter aircraft.
U.S. warned not ‘to violate territorial waters’ China now claims added by World Tribune on
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