U.S. warship sails near Chinese-controlled S.China Sea islands

[TexasTowelie]

Source: Reuters

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A U.S. warship sailed near the Chinese-controlled Paracel Islands in the disputed South China Sea on Friday in a freedom of navigation operation, the U.S. Navy said, the first such mission under President Joe Biden’s new administration.

China’s military condemned the move, saying it had dispatched naval and air units to follow and warn away the ship.

The busy waterway is one of a number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which include a trade war, U.S. sanctions, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

China has been infuriated by repeated U.S. sailings near the islands Beijing occupies and controls in the South China Sea. China says it has irrefutable sovereignty and has accused Washington of deliberately stoking tensions.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-usa/u-s-warship-sails-near-chinese-controlled-s-china-sea-islands-idUSKBN2A50T0

[Ford_Prefect]

1. Be careful with those Sabers, boys. They've been known to go off occasionally when they get rattled.

And bullies often claim it was the other guy who hit first, typically after leaning rather egregiously on the respondent to give up their lunch money.

[EX500rider]

3. The bully here would be China...

....dredging up small islands then claiming it as part of their territory. The US is just standing up for everyone's right for free passage in international waters.

[dalton99a]

4. +1. They literally created artificial islands to justify their bullshit territorial claims

(The South China Sea belongs to China as much as the Arabian Sea belongs to Saudi Arabia or the Indian Ocean belongs to India. China's territorial claims are garbage.)

[Ford_Prefect]

5. Yes they are garbage. They've ignored this area since at least 1947 if not longer.

It seems they only took an interest when a geological survey suggested there might be oil, gas, and other minerals to be recovered from the area. Historically most of the zone where the base was dredged up was claimed by the Philippines, with whom we still have a mutual defense treaty.

To be fair so far as I know the Philippines were only interested in fishing near the islands, until the Chinese made an issue of it.

[ripcord]

6. It is just plain theft

[Ford_Prefect]

8. Yes. One theory proposed is that China intends to exert influence on Vietnam

and other countries in that area of SE asia through dominating the sea and what lies beneath it.

[jayfish]

7. Yup, China...

needs to be careful they don't lose their entire navy in 48 hours.

[Ford_Prefect]

9. You are perhaps proposing to release the Kraken on those miserable pirates?

[ripcord]

2. International waters are open to everyone

[Nitram]

10. Building a military base on top of a coral reef hundreds of miles from China to threaten other

countries and control shipping lanes must not be allowed to stand. The US has every right to demonstrate freedom of navigation in these international waters until a typhoon destroys the artificial islands China has built.