Update | US warships to visit Spratlys 'twice a quarter' in South China Sea but 'pose no threat'
The US Pacific Command commander Admiral Harry Harris said freedom of navigation operations by the US navy should not be viewed as a threat after a US warship challenged China’s territorial assertions in the disputed South China Sea last week.
Harris made the comment in Beijing where he kicked off a three-day official visit starting from Monday. His remark came after a Pentagon official revealed that the US Navy plans to conduct regular patrols within 12 nautical miles of China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea.
"We’ve been conducting freedom of navigation operations all over the world for decades, so no one should be surprised by them," Harris said at a Beijing university, in comments released by the US military.
"I truly believe that these routine operations should never be construed as a threat to any nation."
Harris reiterated that the US takes no position on competing sovereignty claims to land features in the South China Sea and encourages all claimants to solve disputes peacefully, without coercion, and in accordance with international law.
That’s the right amount to make it regular, but not a constant poke in the eye.
Harris has been highly critical of Beijing’s island building in the Spratly archipelago, telling an Australian think tank earlier this year that China was using dredges and bulldozers to create a "great wall of sand" in the South China Sea.