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| USS Curtis Wilbur (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By SYDNEY J. FREEDBERG JR.
WASHINGTON: Just two days after the head of US Pacific Command, Adm. Harry Harris, pledged to push harder on Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea, the destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur sailed within the 12 nautical mile limit around Triton Island. Situated in the Paracels, which are claimed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, Triton is one of those islands China seized from what was then South Vietnam in a 1974 offensive that left at least 70 Vietnamese dead. Today, the Paracels are a potential flashpoint in ongoing disputes over the potential oil and gas wealth of the South China Sea. (It’s also worth noting that they’re real, natural islands rather than the artificial constructions of Chinese engineers).
Senate Armed Services chairman John McCain and House seapower subcommittee chairman Randy Forbes, who have criticized the Obama Administration for letting China run roughshod over our friends and allies in the South Pacific, praised the operation — somewhat grudgingly in McCain’s case.
“I am encouraged to hear that the U.S. Navy has conducted a freedom of navigation operation near Triton Island in the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea,” Sen. McCain said. “This operation challenged excessive maritime claims that restrict the rights and freedoms of the United States and other nations under international law. I continue to hope these operations will become so routine that China and other claimants will come to accept them as normal occurrences and releasing press statements to praise them will no longer be necessary.”
Read the full story at Breaking Defense