 |
| Image: Flickr User - Greg Bishop |
The top US navy commander vowed Wednesday to continue patrols in the South China Sea which have angered Beijing, after an international tribunal dismissed the Asian giant's vast maritime claims.
"The US Navy will continue to conduct routine and lawful operations around the world, including in the South China Sea," John Richardson said while visiting a navy base in northern China.
The sea has become a stage for rivalry between the two powers, with Washington in recent months sending navy vessels close to islands and outcrops claimed by China, provoking anger in Beijing.
"US forces will continue to sail, fly and operate wherever international law allows," Richardson said, according to an account released by Washington.
The remarks came a week after the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled there was no legal basis for Beijing's claim to nearly all the Sea, embodied in a "nine-dash line" dating from 1940s maps.
Read the full story at SpeacDaily