US warship sails to within a few miles of island built up by China in Spratlys
First so-called freedom of navigation exercise by US under Donald Trump
A United States navy warship has sailed within 12 nautical miles of one of China’s man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea, the first such challenge to Beijing since President Donald Trump took office.
Citing unnamed US officials, Reuters said the so-called freedom of navigation operation was conducted by the USS Dewey, a guided-missile destroyer, on Wednesday around the Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, over which China has territorial disputes with its neighbours.
The move looks set to anger China as territorial waters are generally defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as extending at most 12 nautical miles from a state’s coastline.
Observers say the move comes at a sensitive time, as Trump seeks Beijing’s cooperation to rein in North Korea’s nuclear threats, and may cast a shadow on relations between China and the US, which have shown signs of warming since the first summit between Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in April.
One US official told Reuters that it was the first operation near a land feature which was included in a ruling last year against China by an international arbitration court in The Hague. The court invalidated China’s claim to sovereignty over large swathes of the South China Sea.