U.S. Navy Says Destroyer Conducted FONOP in South China Sea after China Alleges Trespassing

The U.S. Navy said its destroyer USS Benfold (DDG 65) conducted Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP) in the vicinity of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on Thursday, rejecting China’s claim that the ship trespassed into its territorial waters.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) alleged that the USS Benfold “illegally entered the Chinese territorial waters” of Xisha Islands without authorization from the Chinese government. The military said it then tracked, monitored and warned the U.S. warship away.

“The U.S. move severely violated China's sovereignty and security, and is yet another solid proof of the U.S.' navigational hegemony and militarization of the South China Sea, as facts prove that the U.S. is the non-debatable maker of security risks in the South China Sea, as well as the biggest destroyer of peace and stability in the region,” Senior Colonel Tian Junli, spokesperson at the PLA Southern Theater Command, said in a statement. "We sternly demand the US to stop such provocation immediately, or it will face the serious consequences led by accidents caused by this," Tian added.

USS Benfold's trespassing into China's territorial and internal waters of Xisha Islands on Thursday is not "freedom of navigation," but a violation of Chinese sovereignty, and a provocation which harms the peace and stability in the South China Sea, Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesperson at the Chinese Defense Ministry, said in a statement on the day.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military called Chinese claims “false.”

“USS Benfold conducted this FONOP in accordance with international law and then continued on to conduct normal operations in international waters. The operation reflects our commitment to uphold freedom of navigation and lawful uses of the sea as a principle. The United States is defending every nation’s right to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as USS Benfold did this week. Nothing People's Republic of China (PRC) says otherwise will deter us,” the Navy said in a statement.

“Unlawful and sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea pose a serious threat to the freedom of the seas, including the freedoms of navigation and overflight, free trade and unimpeded commerce, and freedom of economic opportunity for South China Sea littoral nations,” the statement said.

The PRC, Taiwan, and Vietnam each claim sovereignty over the Paracel Islands. All three claimants require either permission or advance notification before a military vessel engages in "innocent passage" through the territorial sea. Under international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention, the ships of all States - including their warships - enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea. The unilateral imposition of any authorization or advance-notification requirement for innocent passage is unlawful.

The Navy added that by engaging in innocent passage without giving prior notification to or asking permission from any of the claimants, it challenged the unlawful restrictions imposed by the PRC, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

The U.S. said it also challenged the People’s Republic of China’s 1996 declaration of straight baselines encompassing the Paracel Islands. Furthermore, international law does not permit continental States, like the PRC, to establish baselines around entire dispersed island groups. With these baselines, it said the PRC attempted to claim more internal waters, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone, and continental shelf than it is entitled to under international law.

“By conducting this operation, the United States demonstrated that these waters are beyond what the PRC can lawfully claim as its territorial sea, and the PRC claimed straight baselines around the Paracel Islands are inconsistent with international law,” the Navy said.