AFTER an Australian military surveillance plane flew near disputed areas in the South China Sea Nov. 25, two United States B-52 bombers again flew close to artificial islands created by China in the South China Sea, US officials said Saturday.
A Pentagon official said one of the two bombers “unintentionally” flew over an artificial island on Cuarteron Reef and China complained the airplane came within two nautical miles from the reef, one of the officials said on condition of anonymity.
“There was no intention of flying within 12 nautical miles of any feature,” said Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban.
It was the second time US B-52 bombers flew near the heavily disputed islands in an exercise the US described as a freedom of navigation operations and came two weeks after the Royal Australian Air Force carried out the surveillance flight on Nov. 25.
Australia was the second country after the United States to challenge China’s claim to almost all of the South China Sea which is roiled in tension after China transformed reefs into artificial islands capable of supporting military facilities.
On Oct. 27, Washington infuriated Beijing when the US Navy’s guided missile destroyer USS Lassen sailed within 21 kilometers of at least one artificial island built by China.
China insists it has sovereignty over virtually all of the resource-rich sea, conflicting with the various claims of several neighboring nations, and US activity in the area has provoked Beijing’s ire several times in recent months.
“In the morning of 10 December, two US B-52 bombers entered air space over the Chinese Nansha islands and nearby areas without authorization,” Beijing’s defense ministry said, using the Chinese name for the Spratly Islands.
“This behavior is a serious military provocation which complicates the general situation in the South China Sea, [contributing] to the militarization of the region,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.
During a mission by the two B-52 bombers last week, one of the aircraft unintentionally flew within two nautical miles of an artificially constructed island.
This may have been because of bad weather conditions, according to officials quoted in the newspaper.
Beijing’s defense ministry added: “The United States has continuously sent military ships and planes to make a show of force and create tensions in the waters and airspace” of the South China Sea.
“The Chinese army will take all necessary measures to defend the sovereignty and the security of the country.”
The United States is critical of China building artificial islands in the disputed sea, and has flown other B-52 bombers and sailed a guided-missile destroyer near some of the constructions in recent months.
Washington has said China’s transformation of the geographical features in the Spratly Islands poses a threat to freedom of navigation in the critical body of water.
China’s military conducted war games in the area this week, with warships, submarines and fighter jets deployed over a “range of several thousand kilometers,” the People’s Liberation Army Daily said.
Beijing insists it has sovereignty over virtually all of the resource-rich South China Sea, conflicting with the various claims of Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei.