US lawmakers urge more naval operations in South China Sea to ‘send a strong message’ to Beijing
China claims virtually the entire South China Sea, an area that contains some of the world’s busiest sea lanes.
Members of Congress urged the Obama administration on Wednesday to order more naval operations close to disputed islands in the South China Sea. The State Department said Beijing risks conflict and isolation through its assertive behaviour in those waters.
Twice since the fall, the US Navy has sailed by artificial islands built by China, and Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that such operations will take place regularly.
Republicans said such “freedom of navigation” operations cruising within 12 nautical miles of the man-made islands – what China might consider as their territorial waters – should become routine.
“I don’t why we are not doing it weekly, or monthly,” said the committee chairman, Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, noting the US has about 60 per cent of its naval vessels in the Pacific region.
Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado said sending US ships into the area every three months “is simply insufficient to send a strong message to China.”
Merely managing differences with China is not a successful formula
