China has voiced “strong dissatisfaction” after two US warships sailed by an island claimed by Beijing in the disputed South China Sea, adding to simmering tensions in the strategic waterway.
The foreign ministry issued a statement expressing “resolute opposition” to the US sail-by of the territory in the disputed Paracel Island chain on Sunday.
The US military conducts what it calls “freedom of navigation” voyages in the South China Sea to contest Beijing’s assertion of territorial rights in the area, although the US has no claims of its own in the disputed region.
The US Navy’s Higgins and Antietam warships, a destroyer and cruiser, respectively, entered China’s territorial waters without permission and were met by the Chinese Navy, which “conducted verification and identification of US ships according to law and warned them to leave,” the ministry said.
State-run news agency Xinhua said the two vessels were “expelled” from the waters.
The operation was conducted just over a week after Beijing flew nuclear-capable bombers to a disputed island in a bold power play to show its military might and boost its territorial claims in the area.
The move prompted immediate criticism from the US, which last week pulled its invitation to China to join maritime exercises in the Pacific because of Beijing’s “continued militarization” of the South China Sea.
Beijing has been building artificial islands to reinforce its claim over most of the resource-rich South China Sea despite protests from Southeast Asian countries.
Its neighbors, particularly some of those involved in maritime disputes over the waters, have expressed fears China could eventually restrict freedom of navigation and overflight.
Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, meanwhile, said war is not the only option available to the Philippines to address its maritime dispute with China.
Carpio made the statement even as he slammed as a “false option” the claim of Malacañang that war is the country’s only option, saying the Philippines should use international law to press its position.
“It is a false option because war is not an option and is unconstitutional because the Constitution said we renounce war as an instrument of national policy,” said Carpio, who has been asking the Palace to invoke the 2016 ruling of the Netherlands-based Permanent Court of Arbitration that invalidated China’s excessive claims in the South China Sea, to assert the country’s territorial claims over the disputed waters.
The acting chief magistrate was referring to President Duterte’s statement on numerous occasions that pressing the country’s claims to the disputed waters will mean trouble or war.
Carpio also reiterated his call for the Duterte administration to file a formal protest against the aggressive Chinese activities in the area, saying these breached an earlier promise by Chinese President Xi Jinping that Beijing will not militarize the area.
“China promised not to militarize the islands in the West Philippine Sea but China blew that promise. We can see that it has put up the air and naval bases in the Spratlys so we should be worried and we should protest,” Carpio said on GMA TV Monday.
If the present government fails to assert the country’s claim, then the next administration will have a harder time pressing its position against China, he said.
Last week, Carpio also called on the Duterte administration to formally protest China’s deployment of long-range, nuclear-strike-capable bombers in the disputed South China Sea saying that Beijing’s latest action is a “creeping invasion” and an encroachment on Manila’s sovereignty and sovereign rights.
He said failure on the part of the government to protest the introduction by China on Woody island of the H-6K long-range bomber means the Philippines is “acquiescing or consenting” to the militarization, and worse, to Beijing’s claim that all the islands, waters, and resources within the nine-dash line form part of Chinese territory.
Carpio also suggested that the country coordinate with other claimant countries, as well as other states that see a threat to freedom of navigation and overflight in resisting China’s militarization of the disputed waters.
