US will keep confronting Beijing in the South China Sea, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis vows
Mattis said that the US is the only country to “take active steps” to rebuff China, but that it would continue in order to maintain freedom of navigation in the waters
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis vowed on Tuesday that the US would keep confronting China over its territorial claims in the South China Sea, where Beijing has established a significant military presence on contested islands.
Mattis’s remarks came after Beijing voiced “strong dissatisfaction” on Sunday after two US warships sailed by an island in the disputed Paracel Island chain.
“You’ll notice there’s only one country that seems to take active steps to rebuff [such operations] or state their resentment of them, but it’s international waters and a lot of nations want to see freedom of navigation, so we will continue that,” Mattis told reporters as he flew to Hawaii.
The US Navy periodically conducts “freedom of navigation” operations in the contested waterway, where it sails close to island features China has built into military facilities as a way of showing it rejects any territorial claims.
“We are going out of our way to cooperate with Pacific nations, that’s the way we do business in the world, but we are also going to confront what we believe is out of step with international law,” Mattis said.
Sunday’s operation was conducted just over a week after Beijing flew nuclear-capable bombers to a disputed island, drawing immediate criticism from the US.