Beijing yesterday accused Washington of “provocative” conduct after two US warships earlier this week sailed near islands claimed by Beijing, adding to tensions between the global powers.
The US Navy regularly conducts “freedom of navigation” operations in the disputed South China Sea, to which Taiwan, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei have competing claims over all or parts of the waterway.
The USS Gabrielle Giffords littoral combat ship on Wednesday sailed near Mischief Reef (Meiji Reef, 美濟礁) in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) and the USS Wayne E. Meyer guided-missile destroyer on Thursday passed the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), the navy said.
“USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG-108) challenged the restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, and also contested China’s claim to straight baselines enclosing the Paracel Islands,” Commander Reann Mommsen, a spokeswoman of the US Seventh Fleet, which is stationed in Japan, told reporters on Thursday.
“USS Gabrielle Giffords demonstrated that Mischief Reef, a low-tide elevation in its natural state, is not entitled to a territorial sea under international law,” she added.
China dispatched military vessels to identify and monitor the US warships and warned them to leave, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Southern Theater Command said in a statement yesterday.
“Recently, the US has used the pretext of ‘freedom of navigation’ to frequently send warships to the South China Sea area to cause trouble,” it said. “We urge the US to cease this kind of provocative, risky conduct to prevent unforeseen incidents.”
Mommsen said that the operations were designed to “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.”
Washington and Beijing are locked in a bruising trade war and have tussled over diplomatic issues, including a bill passed by the US Congress this week in support of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.
China has laid claim to nearly all of the South China Sea and has built numerous military outposts on the small islands and atolls of the region, angering other claimants.
In the past few months, the US military has stepped up its freedom of navigation operations in the region, irking Beijing, but not sparking any direct confrontation thus far.
China has effectively drawn a property line around the whole of the Paracels archipelago to claim the entire territory.
However, the US has said that does not accord with international law on archipelagos and territorial seas.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique