 |
| Image: Flickr User - Greg Bishop |
BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The People's Liberation Army Daily has lambasted the United States for sending a warship near Chinese islands, saying in an opinion piece on Thursday that so-called freedom of navigation (FON) operations have flouted the basic spirit of international law.
Though the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) upholds the principle of FON, there is also a balance between such freedoms and individual states' sovereignty, it said, citing some countries' practice of asking for authorization to enter or designating certain sea lanes for passage.
Yet, the United States does not recognize such a balance, deeming it harmful to its maritime supremacy, said the paper. "The United State has not, to this day, ratified UNCLOS and is not willing to see any kind of constraint on its deployment of warships."
The article noted that UNCLOS does not have a universal standard on whether warships can enjoy innocent passage in a country's territorial waters, yet what the United States has been advocating is exactly the freedom to willfully conduct military activities.
Read the full story at Xinhua