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China calls for reduction, halt to US surveillance

China called on the US to reduce and eventually halt air and sea military surveillance close to its shores after a series of territorial disputes this year.

The request was made during a special session on maritime safety between the two countries’ militaries on Wednesday and Thursday, Xinhua news agency said on Thursday, citing China’s Defense Ministry.

Five times this year, Chinese vessels have confronted US surveillance ships in Asian waters, the US Defense Department said in May. China said the US vessels had intruded into its territory. There has since been a sixth incident.

“China believes the constant US military air and sea surveillance and survey operations in China’s exclusive economic zone had led to military confrontations between the two sides,” the ministry said. “The way to resolve China-US maritime incidents is for the US to change its surveillance and survey operations policies against China, decrease and eventually stop such operations.”

Susan Stevenson, spokeswoman at the US embassy in Beijing, confirmed the request.

“Our position has not changed,” Stevenson said, citing a US Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy statement during a June visit to China that the US “exercises its freedom of navigation while putting emphasis on taking care to avoid any unwanted incidents.”

The US maintains on principle that waters beyond 19km offshore are open to all shipping, while China holds that the US should not trespass within its 322km exclusive economic zone.

In March, five Chinese vessels approached the USNS Impeccable in the South China Sea about 120km from Hainan Island, after hassling that ship, as well as the ocean surveillance ship Victorious in the Yellow Sea, in previous days.
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