China says US is 'security risk' after ship sailed by Paracel Islands

China brands US a ‘security risk’ and claims it drove away a USS Benfold after it sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea

• The US destroyer USS Benfold sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands 
• US carries out Freedom on Navigation Operations in the South China Sea
• Beijing said US ship’s actions seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security

Beijing has branded Washington a ‘security risk’ and claimed its military had ‘driven away’ a US destroyer after it sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.

The United States regularly carries out what it calls Freedom of Navigation Operations in the South China Sea challenging what it says are restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China and other claimants.

The U.S. Navy said the guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold ‘asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands, consistent with international law’.

China says it does not impede freedom of navigation or overflight, accusing the United States of deliberately provoking tensions.

The People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theatre Command said the U.S. 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.

Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold (DDG 65), forward-deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations, conducts underway operations in the South China Sea, in this handout picture released on July 13, 2022

Beijing has branded Washington a ‘security risk’ and claimed its military had ‘driven away’ a US destroyer after it sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea

‘The PLA’s Southern Theatre Command organised sea and air forces to follow, monitor, warn and drive away’ the ship, it added, showing pictures of the Benfold taken from the deck of the Chinese frigate the Xianning.

‘The facts once again show that the United States is nothing short of a ‘security risk maker in the South China Sea’ and a ‘destroyer of regional peace and stability.”

The U.S. Navy said the Chinese statement on the mission was ‘false’ and the latest in a long string of Chinese actions to ‘misrepresent lawful U.S. maritime operations and assert its excessive and illegitimate maritime claims at the expense of its Southeastern Asian neighbours in the South China Sea’.

The United States is defending every country’s right to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, and nothing China ‘says otherwise will deter us’, it added.

China seized control of the Paracel Islands from the then-South Vietnamese government in 1974.

In this photo provided by U.S. Navy, Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold (DDG 65) conducts routine underway operations in the Philippines 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 conduit for about $3 trillion worth of ship-borne trade each year.

China has never accepted the ruling.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, through which passes around $5 trillion in global trade each year and which holds highly valuable fish stocks and undersea mineral resources. 

The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan also lay competing claims and often overlapping claims to the region.

China has built artificial islands on some of its South China Sea holdings, including airports, raising regional concerns about Beijing’s intentions.

Beijing has also alarmed the U.S., Australia and New Zealand with the signing of a mutual defense agreement with the Solomon Islands, under which it could receive Chinese troops in emergencies and possibly establish a permanent Chinese military presence.

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