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| Image: Flickr User - Greg Bishop |
By Shannon Tiezzi
The U.S. is considering sending aircraft and ships within 12 nautical miles of Chinese reefs. How would Beijing react?
A Wall Street Journal report, citing anonymous U.S. military officials, says the Pentagon is considering sending Navy surveillance aircraft as well as ships closer than ever before to reefs and islands claimed by China in the South China Sea. The change in policy, which remains under debate, would send U.S. vessels and aircrafts within 12 nautical miles of certain reefs, encroaching on what China claims as its territorial waters and airspace. That, in turn, could spark a fierce response from Beijing, which has promised to defend every inch of its claimed territory in the South China Sea.
The Pentagon is seeking ways to clearly demonstrate that it does not accept China’s land reclamation and construction on reefs and maritime features in the area. According to the WSJ, the United States believes that some of the features claimed by China are reefs rather than islands according to international law, and thus not entitled to a 12-nautical mile zone of territorial waters. China’s recent land reclamations may be designed to force the international community to consider these features as true islands.
By purposefully sending aircraft and vessels within 12 nautical miles of those specific features, the United States would be emphatically demonstrating that it does not agree with this interpretation. U.S. officials interviewed by WSJ likened the option to China’s own encroachments on the 12 nautical mile territorial waters of the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. In both cases, the action is important as a dramatic signal that another state’s claims to territorial water and airspace are not recognized.
Read the full story at The Diplomat