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| Image: Flickr User - Official U.S. Navy Page |
By Hu Bo
The U.S. says it is defending freedom of navigation; really it just wants to limit China’s power in the South China Sea.
On Oct 27, the USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, intruded within 12 nautical miles of Zhubi [Subi] Reef in China’s Nansha [Spratly] Islands in the name of conducting freedom-of-navigation operations. On November 3, Admiral Harry B Harris Jr., commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, said that the operations were not designed as a military threat, but aimed to protect the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations under international law. And according to Harris and U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, the U.S. conducted the naval operation in the Nansha Islands because China’s sovereignty claims were not legitimate and China’s activities compromised freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
The truth is, however, these two accusations are both unfounded and inconsistent with the long-standing U.S. policy on the South China Sea issue. On the one hand, the U.S. declares that it holds no position on the sovereignty issue in the South China Sea, but on the other, it openly challenges China’s sovereignty claims in the area. The mismatch of its words and deeds is a violation of the principle of estoppel in international law. The U.S. accuses China of endangering freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, but instead of providing evidence to prove its point, it only keeps clamoring that China’s island and reef construction in Nansha is “too quick, too much.”
The Lassen’s operations in Nansha constitute a grave violation of many principles of international law and norms that the United States has supported over the years, mainly in the following three aspects.
Read the full story at The Diplomat