FONOPs

U.S. warship challenges Chinese illegal claims in South China Sea

BY JESSE JOHNSON

The guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer prepares to refuel at sea with the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in the Pacific Ocean in November 2017

China sent military vessels and aircraft in an attempt to expel a U.S. warship asserting international freedom of navigation rights in the Paracel Islands of the disputed South China Sea on Friday.
The U.S. Navy said in a statement that guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer had conducted a “freedom of navigation operation” (FONOP) without requesting permission from Beijing — or from Hanoi or Taipei, which also claim the archipelago.
The FONOP “challenged the restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam and also contested China’s claim to straight baselines enclosing the Paracel Islands,” said Cmdr. Reann Mommsen, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet.
Under international law, ships of all states — including their warships — enjoy the right of innocent passage through territorial seas.
Mommsen said that the sailing had also “challenged China’s 1996 declaration of straight baselines encompassing the Paracel Islands.”
Beijing has effectively drawn a line around the entire Paracels archipelago in a bid to claim the entire territory, despite rival claims.
Mommsen noted that international law does not permit continental states like China to establish baselines around entire island groups. 

Using these baselines, China, she said, “has attempted to claim more internal waters, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone, and continental shelf than it is entitled under international law.”

The USS Wayne E. Meyer conducted a similar operation last month, sailing within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of the contested Fiery Cross and Mischief Reefs, two Chinese-occupied islands in the South China Sea.
That sailing came just days after the Pentagon issued a strong statement that accused Beijing of employing bullying tactics in the waterway, citing what it said was “coercive interference” in oil and gas activities in waters claimed by Vietnam.
Beijing claims much of the South China Sea, though the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims in the waters, where the Chinese, U.S., Japanese and some Southeast Asian navies routinely operate.
Neither Japan nor the U.S. have claims in the waters, but both allies have routinely stated their commitment to a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”
“U.S. forces routinely conduct freedom of navigation assertions throughout the world, including in the South China Sea, as a routine part of daily operations,” Mommsen said.
“The Freedom of Navigation Program’s missions are conducted peacefully and without bias for or against any particular country,” she added.
Washington has lambasted Beijing for its moves in the waterway, including the construction of man-made islands — such as those in the Paracel chain and further south in the Spratlys — some of which are home to military-grade airfields and advanced weaponry.
The U.S. fears the outposts could be used to restrict free movement in the waterway, which includes vital sea lanes through which about $3 trillion in global trade passes each year. 

The U.S. military regularly conducts FONOPs in the area.
Beijing says it has deployed the advanced weaponry to the islets for defensive purposes, but experts say this is part of a concerted bid to cement de facto control of the waters.
In a defense white paper released for the first time in years in July, China highlighted a new emphasis on “combat readiness and military training in real combat conditions” and China’s new war-fighting capabilities in the Western Pacific and South China Sea.
Beijing, the white paper said, “has organized naval parades in the South China Sea” and “conducted a series of live force-on-force exercises” while its air force “has conducted combat patrols in the South China Sea and security patrols in the East China Sea, and operated in the West Pacific.”

Stop the Beijing Bully in the South China Sea

Destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer Sails Past Fiery Cross, Mischief Reefs in Latest FONOPS
By Megan Eckstein

Sailors man the rails aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) as the ship transits along the coast of Valparaiso, Chile during a parade of ships on Nov. 19, 2018. 

A U.S. destroyer conducted a freedom of navigation operation in the Spratly Islands today.
Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG-108) sailed within 12 nautical miles of both Fiery Cross Reef and Mischief Reef today to challenge excessive maritime claims in the South China Sea, U.S. 7th Fleet spokeswoman Cmdr. Reann Mommsen told USNI News.
“U.S. Forces operate in the Indo-Pacific region on a daily basis, including in the South China Sea. All operations are designed in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” she said.
Ships operating the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command have conducted several FONOPS this year, with officials saying they wanted FONOPS to be viewed as more routine operations. 

In late May, USS Preble (DDG-88) sailed near the Scarborough Shoal, and earlier that month Preble and USS Chung-Hoon (DDG-93) steamed within 12 nautical miles of the Gaven and Johnson Reefs.
In February, Preble and USS Spruance (DDG-111) steamed within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef, an artificial island China built up in the Spratly Islands chain. 

In January, USS McCampbell (DDG-85) steamed past the Paracel Islands.

Ens. Christian Meyer practices visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) techniques aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) on Aug. 22, 2019. Wayne E. Meyer is deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. 

The South China Sea continues to be a key location where U.S. warships promote freedom of navigation and open international waterways, and also where China has taken a stand this summer. 

A group of Chinese warships, including aircraft carrier Liaoning, sailed through the South China Sea earlier this summer, operating in territorial waters of the Philippines and near Japan.
When Wayne E. Meyer conducted its FONOP today, other ships were in the vicinity, but all interactions were considered routine, a source told USNI News.
Today’s operation comes just after China denied a U.S. Navy request to send a warship to the eastern port city of Qingdao, Reuters first reported. 

The U.S. and China are locked in a growing trade war, and while U.S. Navy ships have made port visits in Chinese cities previously, the rejection of the request may reflect those growing tensions between the two economic powers. 

China also denied two warships access to Hong Kong, the semi-autonomous islands where protests against the government in Beijing are ongoing.
The full statement from U.S. 7th Fleet:
“The guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) conducted a Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP) in the South China Sea, Aug. 28 (local time). Wayne E. Meyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of Fiery Cross and Mischief Reefs in order to challenge excessive maritime claims and preserve access to the waterways as governed by international law. U.S. Forces operate in the Indo-Pacific region on a daily basis, including in the South China Sea. All operations are designed in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows. That is true in the South China Sea as in other places around the globe. We conduct routine and regular Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) as we have done in the past and will continue to in the future. FONOPs are not about any one country, nor are they about making political statements.”

Beijing's South China Sea Bet On Duterte's 'Friendship' Is Souring

By Panos Mourdoukoutas

China’s bet on Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s ‘friendship” to advance its South China Sea agenda is beginning to sour.
Last Monday, the Philippines high court instructed key government agencies, like the Philippine Navy, police and the Coast Guard, to do what Rodrigo Duterte should have done three years ago: protect reefs and marine life in Scarborough Shoal, Second Thomas Shoal and Mischief Reef.
That’s according to Radio Free Asia report (RFA), which quoted presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo saying that the government was “duty bound” to enforce the court order.
Apparently, the Philippines’ high court ruling puts an end to Duterte’s flip-flops on the South China Sea disputes, which begun in 2016.
Back then, China lost an international arbitration ruling to the Philippines and its close ally the US regarding its claim that it has historic title over the waters of the South China Sea.
In theory, that is. 

In practice, the ruling didn’t mean much. 

While China lost the ruling, it won a new “friend,” Rodrigo Duterte. 

Rather than teaming up with the US to enforce the ruling, he walked the other way.
He sided with Beijing on the dispute, and pursued a “divorce” from the U.S. 

On April 2018, for instance, Duterte backed off his earlier decision to raise the Philippine flag in disputed islands, following Beijing’s “friendly” advice.
Apparently, Duterte was concerned about the prospect of an outright war with Beijing should he had tried to enforce the international arbitration ruling, reasoning that America wouldn’t rush to the Philippines side in that case.
But there was something else in the works, it seems. 

Beijing had offered Manila a couple of promises, as was discussed in previous pieces here. 

Like the promise to finance Duterte’s “Build, Build, Build” initiative, and the promise of peace and a partnership for prosperity.
Meanwhile, there are a couple of things Beijing and Duterte miscalculated. 

The first is that America has assured the Philippines that it would come to that nation’s defense if it comes under attack in the South China Sea.
That’s according to reports in early March, when Washington reaffirmed a defense code that Manila has sought to revise.
Secondarily, this has removed a major snag in relations between Washington and Manila; and seems to have appeased two former Filipino officials who filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) over China’s aggression in the disputed South China Sea.
But not Rodrigo Duterte. 

He didn’t seem to be ready for another foreign policy flip-flop – nor does he seem ready to get the country’s South China Sea Policy right: i.e. stick with the international law.
Until this week, that is, when the Philippines high court ruling forced him to do so, ruining China’s bet on his “friendship.”

Chinese Peril

China’s Sea Control Is a Done Deal, ‘Short of War With the U.S.’

By Hannah Beech

An American crew monitored China’s buildup in the South China Sea this month from a Navy P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance plane.

NEAR MISCHIEF REEF, South China Sea — As the United States Navy reconnaissance plane banked low near Mischief Reef in the South China Sea early this month, a Chinese warning crackled on the radio.
“U.S. military aircraft,” came the challenge, delivered in English in a harsh staccato.
“You have violated our China sovereignty and infringed on our security and our rights. You need to leave immediately and keep far out.”
Aboard the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, flying in what is widely considered to be international airspace, Lt. Dyanna Coughlin scanned a live camera feed showing the dramatic evolution of Mischief Reef.
Five years ago, this was mostly an arc of underwater atoll populated by tropical fish and turtles.
Now Mischief Reef, which is off the Philippine coast but controlled by China, has been filled out and turned into a Chinese military base, complete with radar domes, shelters for surface-to-air missiles and a runway long enough for fighter jets.
Six other nearby shoals have been similarly transformed by Chinese dredging.
“I mean, this is insane,” Lieutenant Coughlin said.
“Look at all that crazy construction.”
A rare visit on board a United States Navy surveillance flight over the South China Sea pointed out how profoundly China has reshaped the security landscape across the region.
The country’s aggressive territorial claims and island militarization have put neighboring countries and the United States on the defensive, even as President Trump’s administration is stepping up efforts to highlight China’s controversial island-building campaign.
In congressional testimony before assuming his new post as head of the United States Indo-Pacific Command in May, Adm. Philip S. Davidson sounded a stark warning about Beijing’s power play in a sea through which roughly one-third of global maritime trade flows.
“In short, China is now capable of controlling the South China Sea in all scenarios short of war with the United States,” Admiral Davidson said, an assessment that caused some consternation in the Pentagon.

A view of Subi Reef and the array of vessels there.

How Beijing relates to its neighbors in the South China Sea could be a harbinger of its interactions elsewhere in the world.
Xi Jinping has held up the island-building effort as a prime example of “China moving closer to center stage” and standing “tall and firm in the East.”
In a June meeting with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Xi vowed that China “cannot lose even one inch of the territory” in the South China Sea, even though an international tribunal has dismissed Beijing’s expansive claims to the waterway.
The reality is that governments with overlapping territorial claims — representing Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei — lack the firepower to challenge China.
The United States has long fashioned itself as a keeper of peace in the Western Pacific.
But it’s a risky proposition to provoke conflict over a scattering of rocks in the South China Sea, analysts say.
“As China’s military power grows relative to the United States, and it will, questions will also grow regarding America’s ability to deter Beijing’s use of force in settling its unresolved territorial issues,” said Rear Adm. Michael McDevitt, who is now a senior fellow in strategic studies at the Center for Naval Analyses.
An unexpected encounter in the South China Sea could also set off an international incident.
A 1.4-million-square-mile sea presents a kaleidoscope of shifting variables: hundreds of disputed shoals, thousands of fishing boats, coast guard vessels and warships and, increasingly, a collection of Chinese fortresses.
In late August, one of the Philippines’ largest warships, a cast-off cutter from the United States Coast Guard, ran aground on Half Moon Shoal, an unoccupied maritime feature not far from Mischief Reef.
The Chinese, who also claim the shoal, sent vessels from nearby artificial islands, but the Philippines refused any help.
After all, in 2012, the Chinese Coast Guard had muscled the Philippines off of Scarborough Shoal, a reef just 120 nautical miles from the main Philippine island of Luzon.
Another incident in 1995 brought a Chinese flag to Mischief Reef, also well within what international maritime law considers a zone where the Philippines has sovereign rights.
Could somewhere like Half Moon Shoal be the next flash point in the South China Sea?
“A crisis at Half Moon was averted, but it has always been the risk with the South China Sea that a small incident in remote waters escalates into a much larger crisis through miscommunication or mishandling,” said Ian Storey, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. “That’s why this is all so dangerous. It’s not just a pile of rocks that can be ignored.”
Monitoring feeds from a camera controlled by an observer, front left, on the naval reconnaissance mission early this month.

‘Leave immediately!’
On the scratchy radio channel, the Chinese challenges kept on coming.
Eight separate times during the mission this month, Chinese dispatchers queried the P-8A Poseidon. Twice, the Chinese accused the American military aircraft not just of veering close to what Beijing considered its airspace but also of violating its sovereignty.
“Leave immediately!” the Chinese warned over and over.
Cmdr. Chris Purcell, the American squadron commander, said such challenges have been routine during the four months he has flown missions over the South China Sea.
“What they want is for us to leave, and then they can say that we left because this is their sovereign territory,” he said.
“It’s kind of their way to try to legitimize their claims, but we are clear that we are operating in international airspace and are not doing anything different from what we’ve done for decades.”
In 2015, Xi Jinping stood in the Rose Garden at the White House and promised that “there is no intention to militarize” a collection of disputed reefs in the South China Sea known as the Spratlys.
But since then, Chinese dredgers have poured mountains of sand onto Mischief Reef and six other Chinese-controlled features in the Spratlys.
China has added at least 3,200 acres of new land in the area, according to the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative run by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Descending as low as 5,000 feet, the surveillance flight this month gave a bird’s-eye view of the Chinese construction.
On Subi Reef, a construction crane swung into action next to a shelter designed for surface-to-air missiles.
There were barracks, bunkers and open hangars.
At least 70 vessels, some warships, surrounded the island.
On Fiery Cross Reef, a complex of buildings with Chinese eaves was arrayed at the center of the reclaimed island, including an exhibition-style hall with an undulating roof.
It looked like a typical newly built town in interior China — except for the radar domes that protruded like giant golf balls across the reef.
A military-grade runway ran the length of the island, and army vehicles trundled across the tarmac. Antenna farms bristled.
“It’s impressive to see the Chinese building, given that this is the middle of the South China Sea and far away from anywhere, but the idea that this isn’t militarized, that’s clearly not the case,” Commander Purcell said.
“It’s not hidden or anything. The intention, it’s there plain to see.”
In other spots, reclamation could also be seen on Vietnamese-controlled features, such as West London Reef, where workers dragged equipment past piles of sand.
But dredging by Southeast Asian nations is scant compared with the Chinese effort.
In April, China for the first time deployed antiship and antiaircraft missiles on Mischief, Subi and Fiery Cross, American military officials said.
The following month, a long-range bomber landed on Woody Island, another contested South China Sea islet.
A Pentagon report released in August said that with forward operating bases on artificial islands in the South China Sea, the People’s Liberation Army was honing its “capability to strike U.S. and allied forces and military bases in the western Pacific Ocean, including Guam.”
In response to the intensifying militarization of the South China Sea, the United States in May disinvited China from joining the biannual Rim of the Pacific naval exercise, the world’s largest maritime warfare training, involving more than 20 navies.
“We are prepared to support China’s choices, if they promote long-term peace and prosperity,” Mr. Mattis said, explaining the snub.
“Yet China’s policy in the South China Sea stands in stark contrast to the openness of our strategy.”

Radar towers, hangars and five-story buildings seen on Fiery Cross Reef.

Projecting Power
For its part, Beijing claims the United States is the one militarizing the South China Sea.
In addition to the routine surveillance flyovers, President Trump has sent American warships more frequently to waters near China’s man-made islands.
These freedom of navigation patrols, which occur worldwide, are meant to show the United States’ commitment to maritime free passage, Pentagon officials say.
The last such operation by the United States was in May, when two American warships sailed near the Paracels, another contested South China Sea archipelago.
Beijing was irate.
The United States says that it does not take any side in territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
On its maps, China uses a so-called nine-dash line to scoop out most of the waterway’s turf as its own.
But international legal precedent is not on China’s side when it comes to the dashed demarcation, a version of which was first used in the 1940s.
In 2016, an international tribunal dismissed Beijing’s nine-dash claim, judging that China has no historical rights to the South China Sea. 
The case was brought by the Philippines after Scarborough Shoal was commandeered by China in 2012, following a tense blockade.
The landmark ruling, however, has had no practical effect.
That’s in large part because Rodrigo Duterte, who became president of the Philippines less than a month before the tribunal reached its decision, chose not to press the matter with Beijing.
He declared China his new best friend and dismissed the United States as a has-been power.
But last month, Mr. Duterte took Beijing to task when a recording aired on the BBC from another P-8A Poseidon mission over the South China Sea demonstrated that Chinese dispatchers were taking a far more aggressive tone with Philippine aircraft than with American ones.
“I hope China would temper its behavior,” Mr. Duterte said.
“You cannot create an island and say the air above it is yours.”

The crew disembarking on Okinawa, Japan, after their mission over the South China Sea.

Missed Opportunities
Perceptions of power — and Chinese reactions to these projections — have led analysts to criticize Barack Obama as having been too timid in countering China over what Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., the former head of the United States Pacific Command, memorably called a “great wall of sand” in the South China Sea.
Critics, for instance, have faulted the previous administration for not conducting more frequent freedom of navigation patrols.
“China’s militarization of the South China Sea has been a gradual process, with several phases where alternative actions by the U.S., as well as other countries, could have changed the course of history,” said Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu.
Chief among these moments, Mr. Vuving said, was China’s takeover of Scarborough Shoal.
The United States declined to back up the Philippines, a defense treaty ally, by sending Coast Guard vessels or warships to an area that international law has designated as within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
“Seeing U.S. commitment to its ally, Beijing might not have been as confident as it was with its island-building program,” Mr. Vuving said.
“The U.S. failure to support its ally in the Scarborough standoff also demonstrated to people like Duterte that he had no other option than to kowtow to China.”
With most of the Spratly military bases nearing completion by the end of the year, according to Pentagon assessments, the next question is whether — or more likely when — China will begin building on Scarborough.
A Chinese base there would put the People’s Liberation Army in easy striking distance of the Philippine capital, Manila.
From the American reconnaissance plane, Scarborough looked like a perfect diving retreat, a lazy triangle of reef sheltering turquoise waters.
But Chinese Coast Guard vessels could be seen circling the shoal, and Philippine fishermen have complained about being prevented from accessing their traditional waters.
“Do you see any construction vessels around there?” Lieutenant Coughlin asked.
“Negative, ma’am,” replied Lt. Joshua Grant, as he used a control stick to position the plane’s camera over Scarborough Shoal.
“We’ll see if it changes next time.”

Sina Delenda Est

White House warns China on growing militarization in South China Sea
By Ben Westcott, Ryan Browne and Zachary Cohen

The White House warned Beijing on Thursday that there will be consequences for its growing militarization in the South China Sea, following reports of missiles being deployed to three of the country's outposts in the disputed region.
US intelligence assessed that there is a high probability the Chinese military had deployed anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles to three artificial islands during recent military drills on the contested sea.
But a US defense official told CNN it was unclear if the missiles remained on the outposts following the April exercises.
The South China Sea is one of the most contested regions in the world, with overlapping territorial claims by China, the Philippines and Vietnam, among several others.
The move would mark the first reported Chinese missile deployment in the Spratly Islands, a series of small inlets and reefs that Beijing has slowly built into militarized, artificial islands to reinforce its claims.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Thursday that the United States has "raised concerns" with the Chinese. 

We're well aware of China's militarization of the South China Sea," she said.
"There will be near-term and long-term consequences, and we'll certainly keep you up to date," she added.
CNBC first reported the Chinese military had deployed the weapons systems to Subi Reef, Fiery Cross Reef and Mischief Reef, east of the Philippines, on Thursday, quoting a source with knowledge of US intelligence reports.
According to CNBC, the YJ-12B anti-ship missiles would be able to strike ships up to 295 nautical miles away from the artificial islands.
Beijing previously announced in 2016 it had already deployed similar weapons to Woody Island in the Paracel Islands, on the northwestern edge of the South China Sea.

This aerial photograph of Fiery Cross reef obtained by the Philippine Inquirer and taken on November 28, 2017.

'Point of no return': expert
China's militarization has alarmed countries both in the region and around the world, prompting freedom of navigation operations by the US Navy to assert its right to travel in international waters.
"The United States has long raised concerns about the militarization of outposts on disputed features in the South China Sea," said a State Department official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
"China's leadership has publicly pledged not to pursue militarization in the disputed Spratlys. We are concerned that China is not acting in accordance with this pledge."
Speaking during a visit to Australia on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said it was important not to have any one "hegemony" in the region.
"What's important is to preserve a rules-based development in the region, especially the Indo-Pacific region and to preserve the necessary balances," he said.
Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told CNN-affiliate Sky News Australia on Friday said if the media reports were correct, she would be "concerned."
"This would be contrary to China's stated aspiration that it would not militarize these features," she said.
But China's steady military buildup on the islands is reaching a "point of no return," Collin Koh, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies' Maritime Security Program, told CNN

China's unmovable aircraft carriers
Beijing claims an enormous swath of territory through the center of the sea, delineated by the Chinese government's controversial "nine-dash line" which runs all the way from Hainan Province down to Malaysia and back past Taiwan.
In a ruling in July 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague ruled China's territorial claims had no legal basis.
Nevertheless, Beijing has attempted to reinforce its hold on the area by creating and militarizing artificial islands in the Spratlys and the Paracels.
Koh said China's string of militarized islands -- equipped with airfields and radar facilities -- have become like a series of immovable aircraft carriers.
He said that the missiles will allow China's armed forces to form "a multilayer military umbrella over the South China Sea," with interlocking sensors and weapons systems.
Satellite imagery had previously emerged of China building installations to hold these missiles, said Bonnie Glaser, the director of the China Power Project at Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"This is exactly what we have expected the Chinese to do," she said. 

"Next thing we'll see is fighter aircraft to deploy, probably on rotation, then they'll begin exercises near the islands. I just think that (Beijing) believes everybody, including the claimants, understands this is inevitable."
Pentagon chief spokeswoman Dana White reaffirmed the United States' commitment to the international waters.
She said the Chinese must understand that "they cannot, and should not, be hostile, and understand that the Pacific is -- is a place in which much commerce goes through. And it's in their interest to ensure that there's a free navigation of international waters."

Rapid militarization
The missile deployments are just the latest example of Beijing tightening its hold on the South China Sea in recent years, as the world's attention focused farther north, on the Korean Peninsula.
In April, the Wall Street Journal reported US officials had confirmed China had installed military radar jamming equipment on the Spratly Islands.

The same month, Australian warships en route to Vietnam were challenged by the Chinese navy as they traversed the South China Sea, leading Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to assert Australia's right to travel international waters.
Hanging over everything was a massive display of Chinese military might in the sea on April 12, culminating in a parade led by Beijing's only aircraft carrier and personally reviewed by Xi Jinping.
The United States under the Trump administration has increased the number of freedom of navigation operations near China's artificial islands, but Glaser said it was difficult for the United States to stand up to Beijing with little support in the region.
"(China) believes they can get away with it and they have probably calculated correctly," she said.
"The big question has always been: How do we impose enough costs so we stop the Chinese where they are, and not go any further? And so far we haven't been successful in that."
Adm. Philip Davidson, nominated to take charge of the US Pacific Command, told his confirmation hearing last month that China is already the master of the South China Sea.
"China is now capable of controlling the South China Sea in all scenarios short of war with the United States," Davidson said in written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"The PLA [People's Liberation Army] will be able to use these bases to challenge US presence in the region, and any forces deployed to the islands would easily overwhelm the military forces of any other South China Sea-claimants," Davidson wrote.
The admiral also pointed to the fact that China's current activity contradicts what Chinese dictator Xi Jinping said during a White House meeting with then-US President Barack Obama in 2015.
On the topic of the South China Sea, Xi said at the time that "China does not intend to pursue militarization."
But, speaking at his testimony last month, Davidson noted that China's "forward operating bases" now appear complete. 

"The only thing lacking are the deployed forces," said Davidson.

Sina Delenda Est: China installed missile systems on Spratly Islands

• China has installed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missile systems on three of its fortified outposts in the South China Sea
• The new coastal defense systems are a significant addition to Beijing's military portfolio in one of the most contested regions in the world.

By Amanda Macias 

A PLA Navy fleet including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, submarines, vessels and fighter jets take part in a review in the South China Sea on April 12, 2018.

China has quietly installed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missile systems on three of its fortified outposts west of the Philippines in the South China Sea, a move that allows Beijing to further project its power in the hotly disputed waters, according to sources with direct knowledge of U.S. intelligence reports.
Intelligence assessments say the missile platforms were moved to the outposts in the Spratly Islands within the past 30 days, according to sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The placement of the defensive weapons also comes on the heels of China's recent South China Sea installation of military jamming equipment, which disrupts communications and radar systems. 

By all accounts, the new coastal defense systems represent a significant addition to Beijing's military portfolio in one of the most contested regions in the world.
The United States has remained neutral – but expressed concern – about the overlapping sovereignty claims to the Spratlys.
"We have consistently called on China, as well as other claimants, to refrain from further land reclamation, construction of new facilities, and militarization of disputed features, and to commit to managing and resolving disputes peacefully with other claimants," a Pentagon official told CNBC when asked about China's recent military activity in the area. 

"The further militarization of outposts will only serve to raise tensions and create greater distrust among claimants."
The recent intelligence, according to sources, indicates the deployment of anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missiles on Fiery Cross Reef, Subi Reef and Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands. The Spratlys, to which six countries lay claim, are located approximately two-thirds of the way east from southern Vietnam to the southern Philippines.

Satellite photo of Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea taken on January 1, 2018.

The land-based anti-ship cruise missiles, designated as YJ-12B, allow China to strike surface vessels within 295 nautical miles of the reefs. 

Meanwhile, the long-range surface-to-air missiles designated as HQ-9B, have an expected range of targeting aircraft, drones and cruise missiles within 160 nautical miles.
The defensive weapons have also appeared in satellite images of Woody Island, China's military headquarters in the nearby Paracel Islands.
"Woody Island serves as the administrative and military center of China's presence in the South China Sea," Gregory Poling, Center for Strategic and International Studies fellow and director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, told CNBC in a prior interview.
"We assume that anything we see at Woody will eventually find its way farther south to more directly menace China's neighbors," he added.

A hotly contested part of the world
The South China Sea, which is home to more than 200 specks of land, serves as a gateway to global sea routes where approximately $3.4 trillion of trade passes annually.
The numerous overlapping sovereign claims to islands, reefs and rocks — many of which disappear under high tide — have turned the waters into an armed camp. 

Beijing holds the lion's share of these features with approximately 27 outposts peppered throughout.
Beijing's interest in developing the crumbs of land across the South China Sea is by no means new.
For instance, China first took possession of Fiery Cross Reef and Subi Reef in 1988 and has since outfitted the features with deep-water ports, aircraft hangars, communication facilities, administration offices and a 10,000-foot runway.
Last week, U.S. Navy Adm. Philip Davidson, the expected nominee to replace U.S. Pacific Command Chief Adm. Harry Harris, described China's increased presence in the South China Sea as "a substantial challenge to U.S. military operations in this region."
In written testimony to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, Davidson said the development of China's forward operating bases in the hotly contested waters appear to be complete.
"The only thing lacking are the deployed forces. Once occupied, China will be able to extend its influence thousands of miles to the south and project power deep into Oceania," Davidson wrote. 

"In short, China is now capable of controlling the South China Sea in all scenarios short of war with the United States."
Davidson's comments echo a steady drumbeat of warnings made by Harris regarding China's growing strength.
Earlier this year, Harris told Congress that Beijing's impressive military buildup, including its pursuit of hypersonic weapons, could challenge the United States "across almost every domain."
"While some view China's actions in the East and South China Seas as opportunistic, I do not. I view them as coordinated, methodical and strategic, using their military and economic power to erode the free and open international order," Harris told the House Armed Services Committee.
Harris, whom President Donald Trump is reportedly set to nominate as U.S. ambassador to South Korea, currently oversees approximately 375,000 military personnel and is responsible for defending a theater that spans nearly half of the Earth's surface.
"Ladies and gentlemen, China's intent is crystal clear. We ignore it at our peril," Harris said.

China Threat

Beijing Installs Communications Jamming Equipment In South China Sea
By SCOTT NEUMAN and ANTHONY KUHN

China has placed equipment designed to jam communications on a barren outpost in the South China Sea — a move apparently aimed at bolstering its dominance in a region where it has pushed extensive territorial claims with its maritime neighbors, The Wall Street Journal reports, quoting U.S. officials.
According to the newspaper: "A U.S. Defense Department official, describing the finding, said: 'China has deployed military jamming equipment to its Spratly Island outposts.'
The U.S. assessment is supported by a photo taken last month by the commercial satellite company DigitalGlobe and provided to The Wall Street Journal. 

It shows a suspected jammer system with its antenna extended on Mischief Reef, one of seven Spratly outcrops where China has built fortified artificial islands since 2014, moving sand onto rocks and reefs and paving them over with concrete."

As The Diplomat, a website that covers the Asia-Pacific region, writes, "It's unclear if the U.S. assessment is backed by other forms of intelligence or imagery alone; the resolution of the commercial imagery is insufficient to definitively substantiate the nature of the equipment, but the U.S. military added an inset showing the kind of equipment it expects has been deployed."
A spokesperson for China's Ministry of Defense declined Tuesday to directly respond to the report, but said the Spratly Islands — which are also claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines — are "Chinese territory."

Map showing overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The electronic jamming equipment would be consistent with a 2016 U.S. Department of Defense report that said China's People's Liberation Army views such electronic warfare as a "force multiplier" and "would likely employ it in support of all combat arms and services during a conflict."
"The PLA's EW units have conducted jamming and anti-jamming operations, testing the military's understanding of EW weapons, equipment, and performance," the report said, according to Defense News.
China sees the South China Sea and its islands and rightful sphere of influence, "dovetailing with its newly reclaimed role of East Asia's dominant power. Also at stake: a strategic waterway with massive oil and gas reserves that potentially could help fuel China's energy-hungry industries and towns," as we have written previously.
NPR's Anthony Kuhn wrote last month that "In recent years, China has reclaimed land on some of the islands and has installed airstrips, hangars and weapons systems, despite Chinese leaders' pledges not to militarize the islands. Vietnam and the Philippines have also built on some contested islands in the area, but to a far lesser extent."

"The United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows"

US destroyer sails close to contested island in South China Sea
By Ryan Browne, Serenitie Wang and Ben Westcott

A US destroyer has sailed within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese-claimed island in the South China Sea, a highly-contested stretch of water where China's been reclaiming land and building islands, the US Navy confirmed in a statement Friday.

The US Navy conducts regular Freedom of Navigation operations in the region with the unstated goal of challenging China's huge, disputed territorial claims in the South China Sea.
On Friday, the USS Mustin sailed close to Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, an island chain also claimed by the Philippines, the US Navy said.
"All operations are designed in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows," Nicole Schwegman, US Pacific Fleet spokeswoman, said.
The Chinese government has laid claim a large swathe of territory in the region, overlapping areas claimed by other countries including Vietnam and the Philippines.
To reinforce its position, Beijing has reclaimed land and constructed military assets on a series of reefs in the Spratly and Paracel island chains in the South China Sea.

In October 2017, the US Navy destroyer USS Chafee also sailed close to the Paracels, provoking a stern reaction from the Chinese Defense Ministry. 

On Friday, the Chinese Navy announced it would hold live fire drills in the South China Sea at an undisclosed date and location.

According to state media, the navy will hold the drills "in the near future" but didn't elaborate further on their timing or what they would entail.
"The purpose is to test and improve the training level of the troops and comprehensively improve the ability to win," state media said.
The drills do "not target any particular country," the report added.
For many years the South China Sea has been considered an international flashpoint, as the US and China attempt to assert their influence in the region.
But the ongoing nuclear crisis in North Korea and a distracted US government under President Donald Trump has diverted attention from the area, allowing the Chinese government to tighten its hold.
"The Chinese continue to pace with their long-term strategy to gain de facto control over the sea lanes in the South China Sea. And what changed is the United States stopped paying attention," Michael Fuchs, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, told CNN in December.

Chinese Aggressions

South China Sea Photos Suggest a Military Building Spree by Beijing
By MEGAN SPECIA and MIKKO TAKKUNEN

Subi (Zamora) Reef in November.

China has spent years building military outposts on a group of contested islands in the South China Sea — a project that has left the country at odds with many of its neighbors and the United States.
First, there was the dredging, in which ships sucked sediment from the seabed and pumped it atop formerly undeveloped reefs. 

Then came the buildings — once said to be for civilian purposes but which analysts now say are small military installations — followed quickly by international uproar.
But the building continued. 

Now, some of the islands that are part of the group known as the Spratlys, where China began large-scale development in 2013, have been transformed from barren reefs into military outposts, as seen for the first time in great detail in a series of new photos.
The images, which were obtained by The Philippine Daily Inquirer from an unnamed source, offer the clearest views yet of the scale of construction and the nature of the military development.
The Pentagon and the Philippine military both declined to comment on the images. 

The New York Times has been unable to independently verify these photos, which were released with annotations that indicate they were taken between June 2016 and December 2017.
But experts who monitor development in the South China Sea say the photos show the islands in dispute and are consistent with satellite imagery of the development that they have been monitoring for years.

CreditPhilippine Daily InquirerPhoto

Conor Cronin, a research associate at the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the buildings in the new images were at the same scale as the structures in the photographs his group regularly assesses from the region. 

The initiative monitors development in an area long shrouded in secrecy.
What’s striking about these images, he said, is that for the first time, significant surface-level details can be seen.
“These are kind of rare shots to see publicly,” Mr. Cronin said, noting that the detailed views of the island, seen from a much closer angle than the satellite level, were insightful. 

“It’s another indication of how well established these facilities are and kind of the capabilities they are going to have.”


The development of the Spratly Islands has ignited outrage from neighbors that also lay claim to this portion of the South China Sea. 

To varying degrees, the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia all stake claim to parts of the area.
While tensions have eased somewhat as China negotiates an agreement with other players on a code of conduct for the region — which seems to allow economic development without resolving the underlying sovereignty disputes — the unabated pace of construction could stir fresh tensions.
Bonnie S. Glaser, a senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the photos provided a unique perspective. 

She said she believed, particularly given the annotations on the images, that they were most likely taken by a military aircraft.
“What is really quite stunning is how clear you can see in these aerial photos how much has been built,” Ms. Glaser said. 

“It’s really up close and personal.”
A recent assessment from the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative of satellite imagery revealed that China had developed 72 acres, both above and below ground, in the South China Sea in 2017 alone. Since the construction first began in 2013, China has developed more than 3,200 acres across the area.
More recently, the Chinese have turned their attention from dredging and reclaiming land to building airstrips, radar and communications facilities and hangars.



On Mischief Reef, which was once largely underwater, 1,379 acres have been developed by China. The latest images from the island purportedly show a nearly two-mile runway and concrete building. Analysts say it is only a matter of time before Chinese military planes begin landing there.
“They are going to begin to operate out of these runways and, I believe, start to actually store these aircraft, at least short term, in these hardened shelters,” Ms. Glaser said. 

“They built them for that purpose.”
China’s Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday that it would conduct training exercises with combat jets in the South China Sea, though it did not indicate whether any of the planes were destined for the islands.
Mischief Reef — known as Panganiban Reef in the Philippines — lies about 140 miles off the coast of the Philippines and was determined by an international tribunal in The Hague to be within Philippine territorial waters.



But the ruling has not stopped China.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative said in its most recent assessment of the island that construction was carried out on buildings covering 17 acres of Mischief Reef.
“This included underground storage for ammunition and other material, the completion of hangars and missile shelters, and new radar and communications arrays,” the organization wrote.
Similar details in the aerial photos point to the same conclusion.
While the negotiations over a code of conduct for development in the South China Sea with the 10-country Association of South East Asian Nations have stalled, China’s development continues.
“While they take forever to put this agreement together, China has not slowed in building up these bases,” Mr. Cronin said. 

“They are continuing apace.”

Rogue Nation

A CONSTRUCTIVE YEAR FOR CHINESE BASE BUILDING
ASIA MARITIME TRANSPARENCY INITIATIVE

International attention has shifted away from the slow-moving crisis in the South China Sea over the course of 2017, but the situation on the water has not remained static. 

While pursuing diplomatic outreach toward its Southeast Asian neighbors, Beijing continued substantial construction activities on its dual-use outposts in the Spratly and Paracel Islands. 

China completed the dredging and landfilling operations to create its seven new islands in the Spratlys by early 2016, and seems to have halted such operations to expand islets in the Paracels by mid-2017. 

But Beijing remains committed to advancing the next phase of its build-up—construction of the infrastructure necessary for fully-functioning air and naval bases on the larger outposts.
AMTI has identified all the permanent facilities on which China completed or began work since the start of the year. 

These include buildings ranging from underground storage areas and administrative buildings to large radar and sensor arrays. 

These facilities account for about 72 acres, or 290,000 square meters, of new real estate at Fiery Cross, Subi, and Mischief Reefs in the Spratlys, and North, Tree, and Triton Islands in the Paracels. This does not include temporary structures like storage containers or cement plants, or work other than construction, such as the spreading of soil and planting of grass at the new outposts.

Fiery Cross Reef

Fiery Cross saw the most construction over the course of 2017, with work on buildings covering 27 acres, or about 110,000 square meters. 

This counts work previously documented by AMTI, including completion of the larger hangars alongside the airstrip, work on large underground structures at the south of the island likely intended to house munitions or other essential materiel, a large communications/sensor array at the northeast end of the island, various radar/communications facilities spread around the islet, and hardened shelters for missile platforms at the south end.

The large underground tunnels AMTI identified earlier this year as likely being for ammunition and other storage have been completed and entirely buried. 

They join other underground structures previously built on the island, which include water and fuel storage.

In addition to the work previously identified at Fiery Cross, in the last several months China has constructed what appears to be a high frequency radar array at the north end of the island. 

It consists of a field of upright poles, similar to those erected at Cuarteron Reef in 2015. 

This high-frequency radar is situated next to the large communications/sensor array completed earlier in the year (the field of radomes in the image below).


Subi Reef

Subi Reef also saw considerable building activity in 2017, with work on buildings covering about 24 acres, or 95,000 square meters. 

This included buried storage facilities identical to those at Fiery Cross, as well as previously-identified hangars, missile shelters, radar/communications facilities, and a high-frequency “elephant cage” antenna array for signals intelligence at the southwest end of the island.

Like at Fiery Cross, the new storage tunnels at Subi were completed and covered over in the last few months. They join other buried structures on the islet, including large storage facilities to the north.

China is poised to substantially boost its radar and signals intelligence capabilities at Subi Reef. 

Since mid-year, it has built what looks like a second “elephant cage” less than 500 meters west of the first, as well as an array of radomes on the southern end of the outpost that appears similar to, if smaller than, the one on Fiery Cross Reef.



Mischief Reef

This year construction was undertaken on buildings covering 17 acres, or 68,500 square meters, of Mischief Reef. 

Like at Fiery Cross and Subi, this included underground storage for ammunition and other materiel, the completion of hangars and missile shelters, and new radar and communications arrays.

The new storage tunnels at Mischief were completed over the last several months and have been buried, joining previously-built underground structures to the north.

In addition to previously-identified structures, China has started work on a new radar/communications array on the north side of the outpost.

China has continued construction, though on a smaller scale, at its bases in the Paracel Islands. 

The most significant of this work in 2017 was at North, Tree, and Triton Islands.

Tree Island

Like North Island, dredging and reclamation work at Tree Island continued as late as mid-2017. 

In total, China built facilities covering about 1.7 acres, or 6,800 square meters, of the island. These included a new helipad next to the harbor and solar arrays and a pair of wind turbines on the north shore of the island.

North Island

China had earlier tried to connect North Island to neighboring Middle Island, but gave up the project after the land bridge it created was washed out by a storm in October 2016. 

Earlier this year, it built a retaining wall around the remaining reclaimed land at the southern end of North Island and built a large administrative building on the feature.

Triton Island

Triton Island saw completion of a few buildings this year, including two large radar towers, which are especially important given that Triton is the southwestern-most of the Paracels and the waters around it have been the site of several recent incidents between China and Vietnam, as well as multiple U.S. freedom of navigation operations.

Woody Island
Woody Island is China’s military and administrative headquarters in the South China Sea. Developments at Woody are usually a precursor to those at Fiery Cross, Subi, and Mischief in the Spratlys. 

There was no substantial new construction at the island this year, but it did see two first-time air deployments that hint at things to come at the three Spratly Island airbases farther south.
First, at the end of October, the Chinese military released images showing People’s Liberation Army Air Force J-11B fighters deployed to Woody Island for exercises. 

This was the first confirmed deployment of J-11s to Woody. 

Previous deployments to the island involved the less-advanced People’s Liberation Army Navy J-10, which is what AMTI has used as a basis—perhaps too conservatively—to estimate Chinese power projection capabilities from its South China Sea bases.


Then on November 15, AMTI spotted several large planes that appear to be Y-8 transport aircraft, which in certain configurations are capable of electronic intelligence gathering. 

AMTI earlier noted that the larger hangars built at each of the Spratly airbases could accommodate Y-8s, suggesting their presence at Woody could be a sign of things to come.

Beijing Sails Ahead in South China Sea

China is starting to dictate terms in one of the world’s strategic waterways, and the United States is largely missing in action.
BY DAN DE LUCE

A Chinese navy formation, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning, takes part in military drills in the South China Sea on Jan. 2.

In his 12-day trip to Asia, Donald Trump largely focused on North Korea and trade, all but avoiding the simmering disputes in the South China Sea and steering clear of sharp criticism of Beijing’s increasingly aggressive activities there.
With the Trump administration focused elsewhere for now, China is quietly pressing ahead with its agenda in one of the world’s most strategic waterways, building more military facilities on man-made islands to buttress its expansionist claims and dramatically expanding its presence at sea at the expense of its smaller neighbors.
Beijing’s under-the-radar advances in the South China Sea could be bad news for countries in the region, for U.S. hopes to maintain influence in the Western Pacific, and for the rules-based international order that for decades has promoted peace and prosperity in Asia.
At the Chinese Communist Party congress last month, Xi Jinping cited island building in the South China Sea as one of his top achievements so far, and touted the “successful prosecution of maritime rights.” 

Those rights appear at odds with international law: Xi is now assuring nervous neighbors that China will offer “safe passage” through the seas to other countries in the region.
“The South China Sea has fallen victim to a combination of Trump’s narrow focus on North Korea and the administration’s chaotic and snail-paced policymaking process,” said Ely Ratner of the Council on Foreign Relations, who served as an advisor to former Vice President Joe Biden.
China’s recent advances in the South China Sea aren’t as eye-popping as the overnight creation of artificial atolls in recent years, a massive engineering project dubbed the “great wall of sand” by a top U.S. admiral. 

That’s one reason the disputes got pushed to the back burner on Trump’s big trip.
“Because there’s no sense of immediate or medium-term crisis (in the South China Sea), they didn’t make it a big priority on the trip,” said Evan Medeiros of the Eurasia Group, who oversaw Asia strategy in the Obama White House.
But experts say the quiet moves — including expanding military bases, constructing radar and sensor installations, hardened shelters for missiles, and vast logistical warehouses for fuel, water, and ammunition — are threatening to turn China’s potential stranglehold on the region into reality.
Much of the activity has centered on three reefs converted into artificial islands through large-scale dredging: Fiery Cross, Mischief Reef, and Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands, about 650 miles from Hainan Island in southern China. 

Satellite imagery in June revealed a large dome had been erected on Fiery Cross with another under construction, suggesting a substantial communications or radar system, experts say. 

At Mischief Reef, workers were installing two more domes.
With runways, hangars for fighter jets, and communications hardware in place on the artificial islands, China can deploy military aircraft and missiles whenever it wants, solidifying its grip over the area and flouting international maritime law. 

The three newly built bases in the Spratlys, combined with another on Woody Island, will enable Chinese warplanes to fly over nearly the entire South China Sea.

That could be the precursor to an “air defense identification zone” similar to the one that China slapped onto the East China Sea in 2013.
And the new bases have given China much greater reach at sea. 

Beijing has deployed more naval ships, Coast Guard vessels, and a flotilla of fishing boats that act as a maritime militia virtually around the clock. 

The ships can now dock nearby to refuel and resupply, rather than sail home, extending their time on station and their ability to project Chinese power through the area. 

That is changing the balance of power as fishing ships and coast guard vessels from other claimant countries like Vietnam and the Philippines are elbowed away from disputed features.
This summer, for example, Vietnam hoped to drill for natural gas off its own coast. 

But China reportedly summoned the Vietnamese ambassador and threatened military action if Hanoi went forward with development in its own exclusive economic zone. 

Sensing little backing from Washington, Vietnam quietly backed down and stopped drilling.
“The sheer numbers are starting to push the Filipinos, the Vietnamese, and the Malaysians out,” said Gregory Poling of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
More than nine months into the Trump administration, contrasts with U.S. policy under Barack Obama toward the South China Sea are apparent — as they are with the initial saber-rattling tone of Trump administration officials. 

The Obama administration put a focus on diplomacy and consistently sought to uphold international law regarding the disputed waterway, though it often shied away from sailing U.S. Navy ships through the waters to send a tough signal to Beijing.
The Trump administration has taken almost the opposite approach: Navy cruises to assert the right of navigation have become commonplace, but there is little sign yet of a concerted U.S. policy to diplomatically push back against Chinese encroachment or offer encouragement to U.S. allies and partners threatened by Beijing’s advances.
“By having no South China Sea policy, Trump ensures that all the initiative lies with Beijing,” said Mira Rapp-Hooper, a senior fellow at Yale’s Paul Tsai China Center.
Former U.S. officials and congressional aides said the Trump administration appears to be pulling its punches on the South China Sea, as well as trade issues, in hopes of securing Beijing’s cooperation to cut off North Korea’s access to fuel and cash to fund its nuclear weapons program. 

So far, China has stopped short of drastic action to squeeze the regime in Pyongyang — and Chinese officials just contradicted Trump’s claims that the two countries have found more common ground.
At the end of his Asia trip, Trump did offer to “mediate” between Vietnam and China, but that spooked officials in Hanoi who fear they could be a pawn in a bigger U.S.-China game centered on North Korea.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment on its approach to the South China Sea.
However, some former Obama officials are cautiously optimistic that the Trump administration, hamstrung so far by short staffing at key positions, especially regarding Asia policy, is starting to craft a more coherent policy toward the region, including a sharper focus on China’s activities in the South China Sea. 

Joint communiques in Japan and Vietnam stressed continued U.S. support for the rule of law and an end to coercion in maritime disputes, for example.
Ratner, the former Biden advisor, said he expects the Trump administration to chart a more proactive course as it settles into office.
“They appear to finally be getting their policy feet under them and I’m expecting more focus on South China Sea in the months ahead,” he said. 

“So it’s premature to declare it’ll remain a low priority going forward.”

Chinese Aggressions

US destroyer sails near artificial Chinese island in South China Sea
By Lucas Tomlinson

USS John S. McCain

With all eyes on North Korea, and President Trump promising "fire and fury" for Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programs, the U.S. Navy quietly dispatched a warship to sail by one of China's artificial islands in the South China Sea on Thursday, a Navy official confirmed to Fox News.
USS John S. McCain, a guided-missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles from Mischief Reef, one of three man-made islands that contain a runway and military fortifications constructed during the past few years.
It's the third time the Pentagon has conducted a "freedom of navigation" challenging China's claims in the region since President Trump took office. 

Fox News first reported the previous incident in July.
A US Navy P-8 reconnaissance plane flew nearby to monitor Thursday's operation, according to a separate defense official. 

It did not take part in the operation
USS Dewey, another guided-missile destroyer, sailed by Mischief Reef in May.
12 nautical miles from shore marks the territorial boundary for all nations. 

Since the U.S. and international community reject China's claim to the island and the surrounding sea, the passage of a U.S. destroyer close by the island amounts to a protest of sort, known as a "freedom of navigation" operation in Pentagon argot.
China has built seven artificial islands in the region in the past few years.
Reuters first reported the Thursday operation.
The warship is named after Sen. John McCain's father and grandfather, both U.S. Navy admirals. The senator visited the warship in Vietnam back in June.
The official said this latest freedom of navigation operation was planned in the past few weeks. 

They have been occurring roughly each month since May.
China has long protested these operations.
President Trump has been calling on China to do more to rein in North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, but with little success.
The Trump administration did manage to get China and Russia's support for a unanimous 15-0 UN Security Council resolution last weekend which aimed to take a billion dollars in exports away from the rogue communist regime.

Chinese Aggressions

USS Stethem Conducts Freedom of Navigation Operation Past Triton Island in South China Sea
By Sam LaGrone

USS Stethem (DDG-63) operating in the Pacific on March 22, 2017. US Navy Photo
A U.S. destroyer came within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese holding in the South China Sea, a U.S. defense official told USNI News on Sunday morning.
USS Stethem (DDG-63) passed by Triton Island in the Paracel Island chain on Sunday to test claims by not only Bejing but also Vietnam, the official confirmed to USNI News.
Since the Trump administration has begun testing excessive maritime claims in the South China Sea, Pentagon officials have repeatedly said they would not confirm reports of freedom of navigation operations outside of the yearly report that outlines the operations.
“U.S. forces operate in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region on a daily basis, including in the South China Sea. All operations are conducted in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows. That is true in the South China Sea as in other places around the globe,” U.S. Pacific Fleet spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Matt Knight said in a statement to USNI News on Sunday.
“We conduct routine and regular FONOPs, as we have done in the past and will continue to do in the future. Summaries of these operations are released publicly in the annual DoD Freedom of Navigation Report, and not sooner.”
The passage was first reported Sunday morning by Fox News. 

Fox reported a Chinese warship shadowed Stethem during the transit.
While Pentagon officials are reticent to confirm details, it is likely Stethem conducted an innocent passage past Triton and tested Chinese requirement for prior notification before entering "territorial waters" and Beijing’s expansive claims around the Paracel Island chain.
“China claims illegal straight baselines that encircle the entire island group,” James Kraska, a professor of international law, oceans law and policy at the U.S. Naval War College’s Stockton Center for the Study of International Law told USNI News last year.
In October, USS Decatur (DDG-73) conducted a freedom of navigation operation that tested just the baseline. 

Vietnam also has claims to the territory which China has occupied since the 1970s.
In early 2016, USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG-54) came within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracels — without prior notification.

CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative/DigitalGlobe Photo
“This operation challenged attempts by China to restrict navigation rights and freedoms around the features they claim by policies that require prior permission or notification of transit within territorial seas. The excessive claims regarding Triton Island are inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention,” the Pentagon said at the time.
Stethem’s transit follows a May operation in which USS Dewey (DDG-105) passed within six nautical miles of the Chinese installation on Mischief Reef in the boldest statement the U.S. has made to date in challenging China’s claims to its artificial islands.
Without prior notification, Dewey came within six nautical miles of Mischief Reef and conducted a man-overboard drill as part of the test of Chinese claims.
While China’s militarization of its chain of artificial islands in the Spratly Islands chain closer to the Philippines have drawn the most international concern, Beijing has also been installing military equipment in its Paracel Island chain closer to Vietnam.
USNI News understands in May the Office of the Secretary of Defense presented the National Security Council a schedule for future regional FON ops to create a menu of options for the NSC to choose from when U.S. assets are in the region.

The following is the July 2, 2017 complete statement from U.S. Pacific Fleet to USNI News.
U.S. forces operate in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region on a daily basis, including in the South China Sea. 

All operations are conducted in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows. 

That is true in the South China Sea as in other places around the globe.
We have a comprehensive Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOP) program under which U.S. Forces challenge excessive maritime claims across the globe to demonstrate our commitment to uphold the rights, freedoms, and uses of the sea and airspace guaranteed to all nations under international law.
FONOPs are not about any one country, nor are they about making political statements. 

In fiscal year (FY) 2016, we conducted FONOPs challenging excessive maritime claims of 22 different coastal States, including claims of allies and partners.
We conduct routine and regular FONOPs, as we have done in the past and will continue to do in the future. 

Summaries of these operations are released publicly in the annual DoD Freedom of Navigation Report, and not sooner.