The US Navy is likely to carry out another patrol within 12 nautical miles (22km) of artificial islands in the South China Sea before the end of the year, a US Navy official said on Friday.
The USS Lassen, a guided missile destroyer, last month sailed close to one of China’s man-made islands in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島) archipelago to underscore its rights under international law, drawing an angry rebuke from Beijing.
A US defense official said this month the US Navy planned two or more patrols per quarter in the region as part of its plan to regularly exercise its rights under international law and remind China and others about its view.
The US Navy official said the next patrol in the Spratly Islands would likely take place next month.
Two US Air Force B-52 strategic bombers also flew near the artificial Chinese islands last week, in advance of US President Barack Obama’s visit to the region this week to attend Asia-Pacific summits.
Obama on Friday said the disputed region would be a major focus of summit meetings among world leaders this weekend in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than US$5 trillion of world trade transits every year. Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines have rival claims to parts or all of the region.
On Thursday, Obama demanded China halt land reclamation work that is turning seven reefs into artificial islands. China is building airfields and other facilities on some of them.
In a report published on the Chinese Ministry of National Defense’s Web site on Thursday, China’s top admiral, Wu Shengli (吳勝利), said his forces have shown “enormous restraint” in the face of US provocations in the South China Sea, while warning they stand ready to respond to repeated breaches of Chinese sovereignty.
US officials said the US Navy avoided military drills that could have exacerbated tensions with Beijing during the Lassen’s Oct. 27 patrol in the Spratly Islands, an approach experts said could reinforce rather than challenge China’s sovereignty claims.
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