USS Curtis Wilbur DDG-54, a Burke-class guided missile destroyer
The United States and China are once again at odds in the South China Sea. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, a U.S. warship sailed near the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands) in the South China Sea on Thursday (May 20). The Chinese Communist Party again called the U.S. military “illegal intrusion,” while the U.S. accused the Communist Party of violating international law and said it would continue to “take action to protect those rights and freedoms.
This is the latest dispute between the two countries over waterways in the South China Sea. On Thursday, Tian Junli, a spokesman for the Chinese military’s southern war zone, said in a statement that the U.S. guided-missile destroyer Curtis Wilbur had “illegally intruded” into the territorial waters of Xisha without the “approval” of the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese military “organized naval and air forces to track and monitor the ship and warned it off”. The statement also said that the U.S. military “seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security and undermined regional peace and stability.
The U.S. Seventh Fleet said in a statement that on May 20, local time, the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer Wilbur entered the vicinity of the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands) to conduct a freedom of navigation operation without prior notification to the countries concerned, challenging the Chinese Communist Party’s illegal practice of drawing a straight baseline and making sovereignty claims over the waters. The statement said, “Under international law, no country can unilaterally set any requirements such as prior notification or prior approval for innocent passage.”
The Seventh Fleet’s also stated that “as long as some nations continue to make maritime claims that are inconsistent with international law and set unlawful regulations on rights and freedoms that are enjoyed by all nations, the United States will continue to take action to protect those rights and freedoms.”
The South China Sea has become one of the many acrimonious flashpoints in U.S.-China relations, with the United States refusing to recognize Beijing’s self-proclaimed territorial claims in the South China Sea. In recent years, U.S. warships have been passing through the South China Sea with increasing frequency.
Following President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, U.S. warships have openly crossed the Taiwan Strait several times and have conducted several Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOP) in the South China Sea. They were the USS Makan (DDG-56) on February 4, the USS Curtis Wiebe on February 24, the USS Finn (DDG-113) on March 10, and the USS Mackenzie on April 7. 113) on March 10, the USS Finn (DDG-113) on April 7, and the USS Makan on April 7 and the USS Curtis Wieber on May 18, all of which have passed through the Taiwan Strait five times.
Two days ago, the destroyer USS Wilbur passed through the Taiwan Strait, and the U.S. Seventh Fleet later said in a statement, “The passage of this warship through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region. The U.S. military will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows.”
The Chinese Communist Party military, on the other hand, said the U.S. warship’s passage through the Taiwan Strait “sends the wrong signal, deliberately interferes with and disrupts the regional situation, and jeopardizes peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
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