In this May 20, 2014 file photo, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei speaks during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, China. China said Thursday, May 21, 2015 it is entitled to keep watch over airspace and seas surrounding artificial islands it created in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, following a reported exchange in which its navy warned off a U.S. surveillance plane. Speaking at a regular daily briefing, Hong reiterated Beijing’s insistence on its indisputable sovereignty over the islands it has created by piling sand on top of atolls and reefs. AP
WASHINGTON—The United States vowed on Thursday to keep up air and sea patrols in international waters even after the Chinese Navy warned a US surveillance plane eight times to leave the airspace over artificial islands it is building in the disputed South China Sea.
READ: ‘Go away,’ China tells US spy plane in West PH Sea — report
The Pentagon also said US surveillance aircraft and naval ships have yet to test China’s territorial claims around artificial islands, but that could be “the next step.”
Although the United States does not recognize China’s claims of sovereignty around the man-made structures, American P-8 surveillance planes and naval vessels patrolling the area have not ventured within 22 kilometers of the artificial islands—the standard territorial zone around natural land.
“That would be the next step,” Col. Steven Warren, spokesperson for the Pentagon, told reporters.
Asked if the military would move to within that sensitive zone, he said: “We don’t have any announcement to make on next steps. We are going to continue our routine flights.”
The senior US diplomat for East Asia, Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel, told a media briefing in Washington that Wednesday’s US reconnaissance flight was “entirely appropriate” and that US naval forces and military aircraft would “continue to fully exercise” the right to operate in international waters and airspace.
He said the United States would go further to preserve the ability of all countries to move in international waters and airspace.
“Nobody in their right mind is going to try to stop the US Navy from operating—that would not be a good bet,” Russel said.
“But it’s not enough that a US military plane can overfly international waters, even if there is challenge or hailing query … We believe that every country and all civilian actors should have unfettered access to international waters and international airspace,” he said.
China said on Friday actions by the United States in the South China Sea were “irresponsible and dangerous” and called on it to stop.
But the United States said it would keep up air and sea patrols in international waters.
Beijing regards almost the whole of the 3.5-million-square-kilometer South China Sea as its own, its claims overlapping with those of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Recent satellite images suggest China has made rapid progress in filling in land in contested territory in the Spratlys and in building an airstrip suitable for military use and that it may be planning another.
Test of China’s claims
The United States and most of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) want a halt to the land reclamation, which they suspect is aimed at building islands and other land features over which China can claim sovereignty and base military assets.
US officials have said they are weighing sending warships and surveillance aircraft within 22 km of the artificial islands to test Beijing’s controversial territorial claims.
But the move could raise tensions and lead to a standoff on the high seas—in an area vital to global shipping lanes.
The comments came after an American television crew aboard a P-8 Poseidon plane captured a tense radio exchange between the US aircraft and Chinese forces in the South China Sea on Wednesday.
“This is the Chinese Navy … This is the Chinese Navy … Please go away … to avoid misunderstanding,” a voice can be heard telling the Americans, according to a video of the exchange released by the US Navy.
The Chinese Navy issued eight such warnings during the P-8’s flight near the Philippine-claimed Kagitingan Reef (Fiery Cross Reef), one of the sites of Beijing’s massive land reclamation, CNN reported.
American pilots replied in each case that they were flying through “international airspace.”
During the Poseidon mission, the pilot of a Delta Air Lines flight in the area spoke on the same frequency after hearing the Chinese challenges and identified himself as commercial.
The Chinese voice reassured the pilot and the Delta flight went on its way, CNN said.
Delta Air Lines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
READ: US planes keep distance from Chinese ‘islands’ — for now
Global attention
The Poseidon flew as low as 4,500 meters, CNN said, and a video provided by the Pentagon appeared to have been taken directly above one artificial island.
Journalists are rarely allowed to fly in a sophisticated P-8 spy plane, much less permitted to film inside the cockpit, as the CNN crew was.
The extraordinary access, along with the video released by the US Navy from the P-8’s flight, underscored Washington’s determination to focus global attention on China’s large-scale dredging work in the South China Sea.
The incident, along with recent Chinese warnings to Philippine military aircraft to leave areas around the Spratly archipelago suggested Beijing is trying to enforce a military exclusion zone above its new islands there.
The Chinese warnings to the US aircraft are typical and occur frequently, a navy official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“It’s not uncommon,” the official said.
And sometimes the Chinese send military aircraft to visually identify American planes in the area, the official added.
Risk of confrontation
Some security experts worry about the risk of confrontation, especially after US officials said last week that the Pentagon was considering sending military aircraft and ships to assert freedom of navigation around the Chinese-made islands.
China on Friday said it was “strongly dissatisfied” after the US surveillance flight, and called on the United States to stop such action or risk causing an accident.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said the Chinese military drove away the US aircraft, in accordance with relevant regulations, labeling the US action a security threat to China’s islands and reefs.
‘Irresponsible, dangerous’
“Such action is likely to cause an accident, it is very irresponsible and dangerous and detrimental to regional peace and stability. We express our strong dissatisfaction, we urge the US to strictly abide by international law and international rules, and refrain from taking any risky and provocative actions,” Hong told a news conference in Beijing.
“China will continue to closely monitor the relevant area and take the necessary and appropriate measures to prevent harm to the safety of China’s islands and reefs as well as any sea and air accidents,” he said.
The Global Times, a tabloid owned by the ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily, called the US overflights “provocative.”
“Washington is purposely raising tensions with China, a move that has created a higher risk of a physical confrontation,” the newspaper said in an editorial on Friday.
“China should be prepared to ramp up its countermeasures, one notch at a time, according to the degree of provocations from the US,” the paper said.
Could lead to conflict
Military facilities on Kagitingan Reef, including a 3,000-meter runway, could be operational by year’s end, one US commander recently told Reuters, and Washington is concerned China will use it to press its extensive territorial claims at the expense of weaker rivals.
On Thursday, US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said China’s land reclamation in the South China Sea was undermining freedom and stability, and risked provoking tension that could lead to conflict.
“As China seeks to make sovereign land out of sandcastles and redraw maritime boundaries, it is eroding regional trust and undermining investor confidence,” Blinken told a conference in Jakarta, Indonesia.
New precedent
“Its behavior threatens to set a new precedent whereby larger countries are free to intimidate smaller ones, and that provokes tensions, instability and can even lead to conflict,” he said.
Earlier, China said it had “indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha islands and adjacent waters,” using its name for the Spratlys.
“We hope that relevant countries can respect China’s sovereignty in the South China Sea, avoid taking actions that may escalate or complicate the matters, and contribute to regional peace and stability,” Hong told reporters.
China has also said it had every right to set up an air defense identification zone in the South China Sea but that current conditions did not warrant one. Reports from AFP and AP