China yesterday accused the US of committing a “serious military provocation” by flying a US Air Force B-52 strategic bomber over a Chinese-controlled artificial island in the South China Sea.
The US is deliberately raising tensions in the disputed region where China has been aggressively asserting its claims to virtually all islands, reefs and their surrounding seas, China’s Ministry of National Defense said in a statement.
“The actions by the US side constitute a serious military provocation and are rendering more complex and even militarizing conditions in the South China Sea,” the statement said.
Washington must immediately take measures to prevent such incidents and damage to relations between the two nations’ militaries, it added.
Chinese military personnel on the island went on high alert during the Dec. 10 overflight and issued warnings demanding the aircraft leave the area, the statement said.
The ministry also said it would take whatever measures were necessary to protect China’s sovereignty and security.
The US takes no official stance on sovereignty claims in the strategically crucial sea, through which about US$5 trillion in international trade passes each year.
However, Washington insists on freedom of navigation and maintains that China’s seven newly created artificial islands do not enjoy traditional rights including a 12-nautical mile (22km) territorial limit.
There was no immediate response from the US Pentagon to the latest Chinese protest.
Media reports quoted US Department of Defense spokesman Commander Bill Urban as saying in Washington that China had raised complaints over the flight and the US was investigating.
The flight was not a “freedom of navigation” operation, Urban said — an indication that the aircraft might have strayed off course.
The US uses pre-planned freedom of navigation operations to assert its rights to “innocent passage” in other country’s territorial waters.
Freedom of navigation operations around the artificial islands appear to contradict Washington’s assertions that they have no right to territorial waters in the first place, Critics in the US have said.
China’s latest protest comes amid a simmering dispute over Washington’s approval of the first arms package offered to Taiwan in four years.
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