Beijing Deploys Navy to Shadow US Warship in South China Sea as Taiwan Reports Standoff Near Pratas Islands

Fresh tensions have flared in the South China Sea over the presence of a US warship near a disputed shoal. China's military says it deployed naval forces to monitor a vessel it accused of entering the waters “illegally,” while at the northern end of the waterway Taiwan reported a tense encounter with a Chinese coast guard ship near islands it controls.

In a statement, the Chinese military's Southern Theater Command said the US warship USS Charleston “illegally intruded” early on Tuesday into waters adjacent to Sabina Shoal in the Spratly Islands without any approval from the Chinese government.

“The US move infringes on China's sovereign rights and interests, threatens maritime security and is harmful to regional peace and stability,” the statement said, urging the US side to immediately stop such activities. It said naval forces were deployed at once to track and monitor the vessel.

There was no immediate comment from the US Navy. Washington usually describes such missions as “freedom of navigation operations,” although its last such mission in the South China Sea was conducted more than a year ago.

A Philippine military spokesman, meanwhile, told Reuters that the US vessel “did not intrude into any Chinese territory.” He made clear that no country needs prior permission for “lawful passage” through international waters.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea as its own territory, despite overlapping claims by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. In recent times, the sharpest friction has been between Beijing and Manila.

Last month, a Chinese coast guard ship was accused of ramming a Philippine boat on a fuel supply mission near the same area. Both China and the Philippines claim sovereignty over Sabina Shoal and the whole Spratly chain, and the Philippines has a mutual defence treaty with the United States.

In a separate incident on Tuesday at the northern end of the sea, Taiwan's coast guard said a Chinese coast guard ship entered restricted waters near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.

Taiwan dispatched its vessel Taichung to chase and warn off the Chinese ship, and the two sides exchanged messages. According to Taiwan's coast guard, the Chinese vessel transmitted: “There is no such thing as the so-called Republic of China” — Taiwan's formal name. The Taiwanese vessel replied: “The Republic of China, that is, Taiwan, is a sovereign and independent country.” The tense standoff continued for some time.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond. Last week it warned that Taiwan would have to “bear the consequences” after Taiwan's coast guard used water cannon against a Chinese fishing boat near the Pratas Islands.

The Pratas Islands, lying between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, are lightly defended, with security mainly in the hands of Taiwan's coast guard. China's coast guard activity around the islands and off Taiwan's east coast has increased markedly in recent times, raising concern in Western countries. At a recent forum in Taiwan, the chair of a US congressional review commission remarked that China's coast guard patrols east of Taiwan are creating a “very destabilising situation.”

The two incidents on the same day, at opposite ends of the sea, underline how Beijing's friction with Washington and its partners over the South China Sea continues to widen.