Alwaght- Chinese navy is getting ready for drills near the disputed islands in the South China Sea, after a US warship sailed through the waters where Beijing asserted sovereignty.
According to RT, China’s army announcement of an exercise to be held on Thursday in parts of the South China came only one week after the US so-called ‘freedom of navigation’ patrol.
The maritime announcement ordered civilian vessels to stay away from the waters just south of Hainan island and northwest of the disputed island chain in the South China Sea.
The drill comes less than a week after USS Decatur conducted a sail-by near the disputed Spratly or Paracel Islands, through which some $5 billion dollars’ worth of trade passes through each year.
“USS Decatur (DDG 73) conducted this transit in a routine, lawful manner without ship escorts and without incident on October 21,” Pentagon spokesman Commander Gary Ross told the Navy Times. “The United States conducts these routine operations on a regular basis around the world, in full compliance with international law.”
The US operation last Friday was the fourth “freedom of navigation” maneuver conducted in the past year by Washington. The move, as always, drew strong response and criticism from Beijing.
According to the Chinese Defense Ministry, as the USS Decatur was “trespassing" by the islands it was approached by at least two Chinese vessels. The People’s Liberation Army Navy ships repeatedly warned the US warship to leave, as they escorted USS Decatur from waters claimed by China.
The Spratly Islands are comprised of more than 750 islets and reefs off the coastlines of Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, and China, with all the claimants having their own national names for the archipelago.
China has a strong military presence on the archipelago concentrated around Woody Island, where Beijing maintains a runway and an arsenal of surface-to-air missiles. Beijing continues to claim the reefs in defiance of a Hague International Arbitration Court verdict this summer.
