Renewed tension between Beijing and Washington. The Chinese army indicated, Thursday, March 23, to have hunted an American warship having “illegally entered” in an archipelago which it controls in south china seaan account of the facts deemed “false” by the United States.
This incident occurs in a context of a struggle for influence between Beijing and Washington in this maritime area and strong rivalry on several other issues: Taiwan, TikTok, treatment of the Uyghur minority or even trade.
The destroyer USS Milius “illegally entered” Thursday “without the approval of the Chinese authorities” in the waters of the Paracels, said in a brief statement Tian Junli, spokesman for the Chinese army’s southern theater of operations.
“Naval and air forces have been mobilized to track and monitor this vessel, as well as issue a warning and remove it from the area,” he said.
He denounced an American maneuver which “undermines peace and stability in the South China Sea” and assured that the army “remains on its guard and will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard national sovereignty”.
A disputed territory
The Paracels, an archipelago located equidistant from the Chinese and Vietnamese coasts, are disputed between Beijing and Hanoi. The Chinese navy regained control of all of the islands in 1974 following a naval conflict.
“The PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) statement is a lie,” a spokesman for the US military’s Indo-Pacific Command said.
“The USS Milius… is conducting routine operations in the South China Sea and has not been turned back. The United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate where international law permits.” he pointed out.
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China claims to have been the first nation to discover and name the islands of the South China Sea, through which a large part of the trade between Asia and the rest of the world passes today.
It thus claims a large part of the islands of this maritime zone. But other riparian nations (Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei) have competing sovereignty claims.
Each country controls several islands and atolls, notably in the Spratly archipelago, further south, where incidents are much more frequent than in the Paracels.
The United States regularly conducts operations in the South China Sea called “freedom of navigation”, sending warships to challenge Chinese claims.
With AFP
