US Navy ship passes disputed islands claimed by China,

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A U.S. Navy ship passed within 12 nautical miles of disputed islands in the South China Sea late Monday in an apparent challenge to China's territorial claims in the region. A defense official told the Associated Press that the USS Lassen, a guided missile destroyer, moved inside what China claims as a 12-mile territorial limit around Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands archipelago, a disputed group of hundreds of reefs, islets, atolls and islands in the South China. The official said the patrol was approved by the White House and took place without incident.
"We are conducting routine operations in the South China Sea in accordance with international law," a senior defense official told Fox News. "We will fly, sail, and operate anywhere in the world that international law allows." The Navy's plan to send a destroyer near the Spratly Islands was first reported by Reuters. A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Cmdr. Bill Urban, declined to comment. China expressed its "strong dissatisfaction" over the move. China's Foreign Ministry confirmed that the USS Lassen entered within 12 sea miles of Chinese reefs in the South China Sea, and said that the action was illegal and without Chinese permission. "The actions of the U.S. warship have threatened China's sovereignty and security interests, jeopardized the safety of personnel and facilities on the reefs, and damaged regional peace and stability," the ministry said in a statement posted on its web site. "The Chinese side expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition," it said. Asked for comment about the U.S. move, a spokesman at the Chinese embassy in Washington, Zhu Haiquan, told the Associated Press China respects freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. "Freedom of navigation and overflight should not be used as excuse to flex muscle and undermine other countries' sovereignty and security," he said. "We urge the United States to refrain from saying or doing anything provocative and act responsibly in maintaining regional peace and stability." China's assertive behavior in the South China Sea has become an increasingly sore point in relations with the United States, even as President Barack Obama and China's President Xi Jinping have sought to deepen cooperation in other areas, such as climate change. China claims virtually all of the South China Sea. The Philippines and other countries that have territorial disputes with China in the busy sea have been particularly concerned by China's recent land reclamation projects that have turned a number of previously submerged reefs in the Spratly archipelago into artificial islands with runways and wharves. "We have been clear that we take no position on competing territorial sovereignty claims to land features in the South China Sea," the senior defense official told Fox News late Monday. "U.S. Freedom of Navigation operations are global in scope and executed against a wide range of excessive maritime claims, irrespective of the coastal state advancing the excessive claim. The longstanding FON program is not directed at any specific country." Adm. Harry Harris Jr., commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, has previously said the South China Sea is no more China's than the Gulf of Mexico is Mexico's.