US planning to send military aircraft and warships near China

Asia-Pacific, News, US May 13, 2015 , by IRIA No Comments

The United States is planning to send warplanes and warships to the South China Sea in order to put pressure on China over its artificial islands in the region, American officials say.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the Pentagon is considering using “aircraft and Navy ships to directly contest Chinese territorial claims to a chain of rapidly expanding artificial islands.”

It also said US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter called for options that include flying surveillance aircraft over the islands and sending warships to within 12 nautical miles of the Spratly Islands.

Beijing is building artificial islands in the South China Sea, saying the construction is in its own sovereign territory.

However, Washington says the islands are made in international waters and it does not recognize the man-made islands as sovereign Chinese territory.

The Journal reported American aircraft have so far flown close to the Chinese islands and the USS Fort Worth has been operating in the area in recent days.

“We’re just not going within the 12 miles—yet,” an unnamed senior US official said.

China artificial island in South China Sea.

A Philippine surveillance photo shows an artificial island that China has built on a reef among the Nansha Islands (Spratly) in the South China Sea.

On the other hand, China has expressed concern over a plan by the United States to bolster its military presence in the disputed waters of the South China Sea in a move the Pentagon has described as ‘demonstrating freedom of navigation.’

“We are severely concerned by relevant remarks made by the American side,” said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, at a regular briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.

The remarks came in reaction to comments by a US official on the previous day that Washington is considering ways of demonstrating freedom of navigation in the disputed waters.

“Freedom of navigation does not mean that the military vessels or aircraft of a foreign country can willfully enter the territorial waters or airspace of another country,” Chunying stated.

Tensions between China and the US escalated in November 2013 after Beijing declared an air identification zone over the East China Sea.

The US military flew a pair of B-52 bombers over the area in defiance to China’s move.

The White House has not received the new plans by the Pentagon for sending the military to the region.

American officials believe that the case is complicated because the US government considers at least some of the areas where the Chinese have been doing construction as legitimate islands.

If approved by the White House, Navy ships and aircraft would be sent to within 12 nautical miles of the built-up sites that the US does not legally consider to be islands, according to officials.

According the the WSJ report, any challenge by the US military in the region could potentially trigger a regional standoff.