{"id":10454,"date":"2022-07-17T10:09:50","date_gmt":"2022-07-17T08:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=10454"},"modified":"2022-07-17T10:09:52","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T08:09:52","slug":"us-navy-destroyers-sails-near-disputed-waters-of-south-china-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/us-navy-destroyers-sails-near-disputed-waters-of-south-china-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"US Navy destroyers sails near disputed waters of South China Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a second operation to proclaim its freedom of navigation, U.S. Navy\u2019s warship sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands, challenging China\u2019s claims to the waters.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A U.S. Navy warship USS Benfold challenged China\u2019s claims to the waters of the South China Sea by navigating close to the disputed Paracel Island (also known as the Xisha Island in China). Paracel Island is a part of the disputed Spratly Islands archipelago where navigation and transit restrictions are imposed by China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spokesperson of the U.S. Navy\u2019s 7th Fleet headquarters in Japan Lt. Nicholas Lingo said that it was the second freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea conducted this year. He stated that the operation was aimed to target Beijing\u2019s \u201cexcessive maritime claims\u201d in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his statement, Lingo announced that “On July 16, USS Benfold (DDG 65) asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands, consistent with international law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnlawful and sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea pose a serious threat to the freedom of the seas, including the freedoms of navigation and overflight, free trade and unimpeded commerce, and freedom of economic opportunity for South China Sea littoral nations. Under international law, the ships of all states, including their warships, enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea. The unilateral imposition of any authorization or advance-notification requirement for innocent passage is unlawful,\u201d Lingo added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During its transit from the waters near Paracel Island on July 16, U.S. Navy\u2019s guided missile destroyer did not only challenge China\u2019s claims to the disputed water but also Vietnam and Taiwan\u2019s claims in the region. All three governments require the military vessels to seek permission before transiting through the region or at least give advance notice of an \u2018innocent transit\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to the U.S. Navy\u2019s efforts to practice their \u201cfreedom of operation\u201d, Spokesperson of the People\u2019s Liberation Army Air Force Southern Theater Command Col. Tian Junli said that \u201cThe actions of the U.S. military have seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security, seriously undermined the peace and stability of the South China Sea, and seriously violated international law and norms of international relations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Island<\/a>
Island claims in the South China Sea. (Image Credit: VOA\/WikiCommons)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Beijing claims that almost the entire South China Sea belongs to China. Due to this claim, China holds a dispute with the neighboring countries in the region including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei. All regional actors have a different take on the South China Sea\u2019s maritime borders which makes it one of the most complicated areas for maritime navigation in not only the Indo-Pacific region but also around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, China has also been accused of building artificial islands on some of its South China Sea holdings to claim more of the water and by declaring those waters as China\u2019s Exclusive Economic Zones or EEZ. These islands also consist of military settlements, including airports, which has raised several concerns about PLA\u2019s future intentions in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a second operation to proclaim its \u2018freedom of navigation\u2019, U.S. Navy\u2019s warship sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands, challenging China\u2019s claims to the waters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[124,1,125],"tags":[507,45,75,6,80,184,90,217,536,303,260,169,158,91],"class_list":["post-10454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-news","category-united-states","tag-brunei","tag-china","tag-conflict","tag-defense","tag-malaysia","tag-maritime","tag-navy","tag-philippines","tag-ships","tag-south-china-sea","tag-spratly-islands","tag-taiwan","tag-vietnam","tag-warship"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/USS-Benfold-DDG-65.jpg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-2IC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10454"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10458,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10454\/revisions\/10458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}