The US Navy says it has asserted its “rights and freedoms of navigation in the South China Sea” by sailing one of its destroyers near the disputed Spratly Islands.
The 7th Fleet said the freedom of navigation operation conducted Saturday by the USS Benfold defends “the rights, freedoms and legitimate uses of the sea recognized in international law by challenging the restrictions on innocent passage imposed by the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam and Taiwan. “
Several Asian nations have also declared overlapping claims to the South China Sea.
China says it does not stop ships from passing and has accused the United States of stirring up trouble with such claims.
Freedom of navigation is considered essential to modern commerce, as it is the means of transportation for billions of goods.
The Navy said in a statement: “The United States upholds as a principle the freedom of navigation for all nations.”
An international court has invalidated China’s South China Sea claims, but that hasn’t stopped China from producing artificial islands in the waterway, and some of the airports that are home to the man-made landscape have caused some international concern about what what China intends to do with the islands.
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