China calls US a ‘security risk’ and claims it drove off a USS Benfold after sailing near disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea
The US destroyer USS Benfold sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands
US Conducts Freedom on Navigation Operations in South China Sea
Beijing said the actions of US ships seriously violate China’s sovereignty and security
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Beijing has labeled Washington a “security risk,” alleging its military “expelled” a US destroyer after it sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.
The United States regularly conducts so-called Freedom of Navigation operations in the South China Sea, challenging restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China and other claimants.
The US Navy said the guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold has “claimed navigation rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands, in accordance with international law.”
China says it will not hinder freedom of navigation or overflight, accusing the United States of deliberately causing tensions.
The People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command said the US ship’s actions seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security by illegally entering China’s territorial waters around the Paracels, which are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold (DDG 65), deployed forward in the operations area of the US 7th Fleet, conducts operations in the South China Sea, in this photo, released July 13, 2022
Beijing has labeled Washington a ‘security risk’, alleging its military ‘dislodged’ a US destroyer after it sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea
“The PLA Southern Theater Command organized naval and air forces to track, monitor, warn and dislodge the ship,” it added, with photos of the Benfold flying from the deck of the Chinese frigate. the Xianning have been taken.
The facts show once again that the United States is nothing less than a ‘security risk maker in the South China Sea’ and a ‘destroyer of regional peace and stability’.
The US Navy said the Chinese statement about the mission was “false” and the latest in a long line of Chinese actions to “misrepresent legitimate US naval operations and assert its excessive and unlawful naval claims at the expense of its Southeast -Asian neighbors to the south. China Sea’.
The United States defends the right of any country to fly, sail and operate where international law allows, and nothing that China says otherwise will deter us, it added.
China took control of the Paracel Islands from the then South Vietnamese government in 1974.
In this photo, supplied by the United States Navy, the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Benfold (DDG 65) conducts routine operations in the Philippine Sea on June 24, 2022
Monday marked the sixth anniversary of a ruling by an international tribunal that invalidated China’s sweeping claims to the South China Sea, a canal that carries about $3 trillion in shipping per year.
China has never accepted the ruling.
China claims almost all of the South China Sea, through which approximately $5 trillion in world trade flows annually and which contains highly valuable fish stocks and undersea mineral resources.
The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan also make competing and often overlapping claims to the region.
China has built artificial islands on some of its assets in the South China Sea, including airports, raising regional concerns about Beijing’s intentions.
Beijing has also alarmed the US, Australia and New Zealand with the signing of a reciprocal defense agreement with the Solomon Islands, under which it could receive Chinese troops in an emergency and potentially establish a permanent Chinese military presence.