Sina Delenda Est

U.S. Sails Warships Through Taiwan Strait in Show of Force to China
By LUIS MARTINEZ

Flying with the US Navy as it keeps tabs on China over the South China Sea.

Two U.S. Navy warships sailed through the international waters of the Taiwan Strait on Monday, the body of water separating China and Taiwan, the island nation that China considers a breakaway province.
The transit could increase tensions between the U.S. and China as both countries are involved in a trade dispute and as the U.S. voices concerns over China’s militarization of the South China Sea.
“USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54) and USS Antietam (CG 54) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait Transit on Oct. 22, in accordance with international law,” Cmdr. Nate Christensen, Deputy Spokesman, US Pacific Fleet. ”
“The ships’ transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” he added. “The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows.”
A similar transit by two U.S. destroyers occurred in July, the first time the Navy had carried out a mission like that in more than a year.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry first confirmed the transit in a statement.
“The Ministry of National Defense said today that two US ships have sailed from the south to the north through the Taiwan Strait,” said a translation of the statement.
“The Ministry of National Defense pointed out that the US ship routinely passed the international waters of the Taiwan Strait, and the relevant details were explained by the US government,” it added.
While the U.S. and China cooperate in denuclearizing North Korea, tensions have increased as both the U.S. and China have engaged in a trade war.
There are also tensions between the two countries over China's growing military presence on man-made islands in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
Earlier this month a Chinese Navy ship came within 45 yards of the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Decatur as it carried out a freedom of navigation passage through international waters close to those islands.
Another irritant in the U.S.-China relationship continues to be U.S. support for Taiwan.
The U.S. continues to sell military weapons to the island nation even though it does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan. 

FONOPs

Pentagon Pledges More Freedom of Navigation Operations in South China Sea
By: Ben Werner

USS Dewey (DDG-105) transits the South China Sea on May 6, 2017.

THE PENTAGON — The war of words over last weekend’s U.S. Navy freedom of navigation operation in the South China Sea continued on Thursday at press conferences in Beijing and Washington.
Pentagon officials have neither plans to stop sending warships steaming past the artificial islands China has built in the South China Sea nor stop testing expansive territorial claims, Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the director of the Joint Staff, said on Thursday
“We’re going to continue to conduct freedom of navigation operations as allowed by international law and we’re going to continue to do the things that we’re doing,” McKenzie said during the Pentagon’s weekly on-camera media briefing.
McKenzie was responding to media questions about last weekend’s freedom of navigation operation, where Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG-54) and Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, USS Higgins (DDG-76) conducted a FONop past the Paracel Island chain.
When asked by members of the press corps about U.S. military planners concern over a potential long-term threat to navigation posed by the South China Sea island building, McKenzie referenced the U.S. island hopping strategy employed in World War II to repel the advancement of Japan’s military.
“It’s just a fact we have a lot of experience in the Second World War taking out small islands that are isolated. That’s a core competency of the US military that we’ve done before,” McKenzie said. 

“You shouldn’t read anything more into that than a simple statement of historical fact.”

China has deployed surface to air missiles and other air defense assets to many of their South China Sea islands, McKenzie said.

When asked whether Pentagon officials expect an escalation in China’s response to future freedom of navigation operations, McKenzie said, “I couldn’t speculate as to what China’s actions in the future might or might not be.”

Chinese Aggressions

U.S. warships sail near South China Sea islands claimed by Beijing
By Idrees Ali


WASHINGTON -- Two U.S. Navy warships sailed near South China Sea islands claimed by China on Sunday, two U.S. officials told Reuters, in a move that drew condemnation from Beijing as Donald Trump seeks its continued cooperation on North Korea.
The operation was the latest attempt to counter Beijing’s efforts to limit freedom of navigation in the strategic waters.
While this operation had been planned months in advance, and similar operations have become routine, it comes at a particularly sensitive time and just days after the Pentagon uninvited China from a major U.S.-hosted naval drill.
The U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Higgins guided-missile destroyer and the Antietam, a guided-missile cruiser, came within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Islands, among a string of islets, reefs and shoals over which China has territorial disputes with its neighbors.
The U.S. military vessels carried out maneuvering operations near Tree, Lincoln, Triton and Woody islands in the Paracels, one of the officials said.
Trump’s cancellation of a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has put further strain on U.S.-China ties amid a trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.
Critics of the operations, known as a “freedom of navigation,” have said that they have little impact on Chinese behavior and are largely symbolic.
The U.S. military has a long-standing position that its operations are carried out throughout the world, including in areas claimed by allies, and that they are separate from political considerations.
Satellite photographs taken on May 12 showed China appeared to have deployed truck-mounted surface-to-air missiles or anti-ship cruise missiles at Woody Island.
Earlier this month, China’s air force landed bombers on disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea as part of a training exercise in the region, triggering concern from Vietnam and the Philippines.
The U.S. military did not directly comment on Sunday’s operation, but said U.S. forces operate in the region daily.
“We conduct routine and regular Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs), as we have done in the past and will continue to do in the future,” U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a statement.
China’s Defense Ministry expressed its anger, saying it had sent ships and aircraft to warn the U.S. warships to leave, saying they had entered the country’s territorial waters without permission.
The move “contravened Chinese and relevant international law, seriously infringed upon Chinese sovereignty (and) harmed strategic mutual trust between the two militaries,” it said.
In a separate statement, China’s Foreign Ministry urged the United States to stop such actions.
“China will continue to take all necessary measures to defend the country’s sovereignty and security,” it added, without elaborating.

Triton island

CONTESTED SEA
Pentagon officials have long complained that China has not been candid enough about its rapid military build-up and using South China Sea islands to gather intelligence in the region.

Satellite photo dated March 28, 2018 shows Woody Island. 

In March, a U.S. Navy destroyer carried out a “freedom of navigation” operation close to Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands.
Chinese officials have accused Washington of viewing their country in suspicious, “Cold War” terms.
China’s claims in the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in shipborne trade passes each year, are contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The United States has said it would like to see more international participation in freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea.