US Warship Sails Near South China Sea Island Claimed by China Stoking Tension

• US Warship Sails Near South China Sea Island Claimed by China
  by Lucas Tomlinson, http://www.foxnews.com/ , 30 Jan 2016
  A US Navy destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles or within the territorial waters of an island claimed by China in the South China Sea, in a sign of increasing tension in the region days after Secretary of State John Kerry visited Beijing attempting to settle long standing territorial disputes. Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to the island as well.
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  The guided missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54) conducted a freedom of navigation operation Saturday near Triton Island, part of the Paracel Island chain in the South China Sea, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed to Fox News. There were no Chinese warships in the area at the time and the transit was characterized as “innocent.”
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  “This operation was about challenging excessive maritime claims that restrict the rights and freedoms of the United States and others, not about territorial claims to land features,” said Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. 
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  Davis said none of the three claimants to the island were notified before the US Navy warship transited the area as part of a “normal process” supported by international law. Davis refused to single out China specifically. 
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  Tension in the region has been building for months.
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  In October, another US Navy destroyer, USS Lassen, conducted a patrol within 12 nautical miles of another Chinese island, a disputed man-made island in the South China Sea part of the Spratly chain of islands, drawing a strong rebuke from China.
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  In November US Air Force B-52 bombers flew near other contested Chinese islands. The following month, the U.S. military deployed a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance plane to Singapore. 
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• US warship conducts operation near China-claimed island
  by http://www.presstv.ir/  
  The United States has sent a destroyer sailing near an island claimed by China in the disputed South China Sea, in a move that could highten Washington-Beijing tensions.
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  The Saturday operation saw USS Curtis Wilbur guided-missile destroyer sailing within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island, which is part of Paracel Islands, Reuters reported.
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  “This operation challenged attempts by the three claimants – China, Taiwan, and Vietnam – to restrict navigation rights and freedoms,” said Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis.
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  Regional countries such as Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei, all have overlapping claims with China over disputed territories in the South China Sea, including the Paracel Islands, Spratly Islands, Pratas Islands and Scarborough Shoal.
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  China and Vietnam fought a brief but bloody war over Paracel Islands in 1974 and some of the disputes have been taken to the United Nations.
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  The US has time and again risked heightening tensions with China through military presence in the South China Sea, questioning Beijing’s insistence on sovereignty over the disputed waters.
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  China has, in response, accused Washington of meddling in the regional issues and deliberately escalating the situation in the waters. In October 2015, another US Navy destroyer, USS Lassen, conducted a patrol within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese island, drawing a strong rebuke from China. US Air Force B-52 bombers flew near other Chinese islands in the disputed waters last November. 
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  Washington is, meanwhile, working to offset Beijing’s influence in the Asia-Pacific region by pressing to sign Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, a colossal trade deal furthering its economic cooperation with 11 other countries bordering the Pacific Ocean, including Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan, and Australia.

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