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South China Sea Forum

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The U.S. Navy plans to conduct patrols within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands in the South China Sea about twice a quarter to remind China and other countries about U.S. rights under international law, a U.S. defense official said on Monday.

"We're going to come down to about twice a quarter or a little more than that," said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about Navy operational plans.

"That's the right amount to make it regular but not a constant poke in the eye. It meets the intent to regularly exercise our rights under international law and remind the Chinese and others about our view," the official said.

U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes on Monday said there would be more demonstrations of the U.S. military's commitment to the right to freely navigate in the region.

"That's our interest there ... It's to demonstrate that we will uphold the principle of freedom of navigation," Rhodes told an event hosted by the Defense One media outlet.

Rhodes' comments came a week after a U.S. guided-missile destroyer sailed close to one of Beijing's man-made islands in the South China Sea last week.

China's naval commander last week told his U.S. counterpart that a minor incident could spark war in the South China Sea if the United States did not stop its "provocative acts" in the disputed waterway.

The USS Lassen's patrol was the most significant U.S. challenge yet to the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit China claims around artificial islands it has built in the Spratly Islands archipelago.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of world trade transits every year. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan all have rival claims.

Rhodes said the goal in the dispute was to come to a diplomatic framework to resolve these issues.

U.S. Vice Admiral John Aquilino, deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans and strategies, declined to comment about when the next patrols would take place.

"We do operations like that all the time around the world. That will continue for us," he told Reuters after his remarks at the same conference. "We'll just keep going."

Defense Secretary Ash Carter may visit a U.S. Navy ship during his upcoming visit to Asia, but is not expected to be on board during any Navy freedom of navigation operations, the U.S. defense official said.

U.S. Navy plans two or more patrols in South China Sea per quarter| Reuters
 
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The precedence has been set by the mighty U.S. of A. If you don't recognize another country's territory claim you can just send warships there in the name of protecting freedom of navigation.


Well, China also doesn't recognize a lot of the territory claims by certain other countries in the SCS. We shall also patrol those territories regularly. Freedom of navigation it is. Let the fun begin:usflag::china:
 
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All China need to 100 of steel fishing boat enough to litter the area the US ship have to travel through.
 
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The precedence has been set by the mighty U.S. of A. If you don't recognize another country's territory claim you can just send warships there in the name of protecting freedom of navigation.


Well, China also doesn't recognize a lot of the territory claims by certain other countries in the SCS. We shall also patrol those territories regularly. Freedom of navigation it is. Let the fun begin:usflag::china:
The problem is that the US have a solid history of enforcement of the freedom of navigation. China has none and given China's claiming all of the SCS, you will be alone in believing the delusion that China supports the idea of the freedom of navigation.
 
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The problem is that the US have a solid history of enforcement of the freedom of navigation. China has none and given China's claiming all of the SCS, you will be alone in believing the delusion that China supports the idea of the freedom of navigation.
You are completely. If China denies FON in SCS, then China will be denied elsewhere worldwide. China is not so stupid to do this because SCS area is much smaller than world wide sea area.

US patrolling is more about defending the 1st island chain to contain China. Philippines and Japan are the most nervous since they are located in these island chain. If US retreat on SCS, this is a clear signal to China that US puts the space as 1st and 2nd islands as buffer zone between China and US. China will unify Taiwan by force right away.

China has larger world trades than united states. FON is core interest of China too even though projection of China power is still limited. I bet that there will more collaborations between United States and China on FON.
 
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You are completely. If China denies FON in SCS, then China will be denied elsewhere worldwide. China is not so stupid to do this because SCS area is much smaller than world wide sea area.
The freedom of navigation principle should not be selectively applied towards individual countries. Either all countries are allowed, or no countries are allowed.

But let us allow that what you say is true. For what reasons would anyone deny China the freedom of navigation through his EEZ ? Just because of Chinese assertion of SCS control ? Only for that reason ? Even at the expense of an economic loss ?

The FON principle was created -- and accepted -- is that often a ship's passage will take it near a country's territorial water and exclusive economic zone (EEZ). It is called 'innocent passage' with the word 'innocent' implying that the ship's passage is purely for transit, not stopping to fish or to conduct trade or military operations. So as long as the Chinese ship made it clear that its passage is innocent, no country would deny the Chinese ship its FON even if that country disapproves of what China does in the SCS.

US patrolling is more about defending the 1st island chain to contain China. Philippines and Japan are the most nervous since they are located in these island chain. If US retreat on SCS, this is a clear signal to China that US puts the space as 1st and 2nd islands as buffer zone between China and US. China will unify Taiwan by force right away.
An argument could be made that what China is doing is to contain those countries and to affect their economies.

China has larger world trades than united states. FON is core interest of China too even though projection of China power is still limited. I bet that there will more collaborations between United States and China on FON.
The collaboration will be that the USN will provide escorts for ships seeking peaceful transit thru the SCS.
 
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Our navy wasrship is patrolled there.

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