By Andrea Shalal and David Brunnstrom

WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) – The U.S. Navy plans to ship the destroyer USS Lassen inside 12 nautical miles of synthetic islands constructed by China within the South China Sea inside 24 hours, within the first of a collection of challenges to China’s territorial claims, a U.S. protection official stated on Monday.

The patrol would happen close to Subi and Mischief reefs within the Spratly archipelago, options that have been previously submerged at excessive tide earlier than China started a large dredging mission to show them into islands in 2014.

The ship would seemingly be accompanied by a U.S. Navy P-8A surveillance aircraft and presumably P-3 surveillance aircraft, which have been conducting common surveillance missions within the area, in line with the official, who spoke on situation of anonymity.

Additional patrols would comply with in coming weeks and may be carried out round options that Vietnam and the Philippines have constructed up within the Spratlys, the official added.

“This is something that will be a regular occurrence, not a one-off event,” stated the official. “It’s not something that’s unique to China.”

White House spokesman Josh Earnest referred questions on any particular operations to the Pentagon however stated the United States had made clear to China the significance of free movement of commerce within the South China Sea.

“There are billions of dollars of commerce that float through that region of the world,” Earnest advised a information briefing. “Ensuring that free flow of commerce … is critical to the global economy,” he stated.

The patrols will mark essentially the most critical U.S. problem but to the 12-nautical-mile territorial restrict China claims across the islands and follows months of deliberation.

The transfer dangers considerably upsetting already strained ties with China, the world’s second-biggest economic system, with which U.S. enterprise and financial pursuits are deeply intertwined.

China claims many of the South China Sea and on Oct. 9 its Foreign Ministry warned that Beijing would “never allow any country to violate China’s territorial waters and airspace in the Spratly Islands, in the name of protecting freedom of navigation and overflight.”

It could be the primary time the United States has gone inside 12 miles of the options since China started constructing the reefs up in 2014. It final went inside 12 miles of Chinese-claimed territory within the Spratlys in 2012.

COMPETING CLAIMS

The patrols will come simply weeks forward of a collection of Asia-Pacific summits President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping are anticipated to attend within the second half of November.

The United States argues that below worldwide legislation, increase synthetic islands on beforehand submerged reefs doesn’t entitle a rustic to say a territorial restrict and that it is important to take care of freedom of navigation in a sea by way of which greater than $5 trillion of world commerce passes yearly.

Washington worries that China has constructed up the islands with the intention of extending its army attain within the South China Sea.

Xi stunned U.S. officers after a gathering with Obama in Washington final month by saying that China had “no intention to militarize” the islands.

However, even earlier than that, satellite tv for pc images had proven the development of three military-length airstrips by China within the Spratlys, together with one every on Mischief and Subi reefs.

Some U.S. officers have stated that the plan to conduct the patrols was aimed partially at testing Xi’s assertion on militarization.

China has overlapping claims within the South China Sea with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines, all of that are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in addition to with Taiwan.

In May, the Chinese navy issued eight warnings to the crew of a U.S. P8-A Poseidon surveillance plane that flew close to the bogus islands however not inside the 12-mile restrict, in line with CNN, which was aboard the U.S. plane.

That identical month, the USS Fort Worth, a littoral fight ship, “encountered multiple” Chinese warships throughout a patrol within the Spratly archipelago, the U.S. Navy stated on the time. It didn’t go into element.

In 2013, Obama ordered two B-52 bombers to fly by way of an Air Defense Identification Zone that China established within the East China Sea over territory contested with Japan.

Pentagon officers say the United States often conducts freedom-of-navigation operations around the globe to problem extreme maritime claims.

In early September, China despatched naval vessels inside 12 miles of the Aleutian Islands off Alaska. China stated they have been there as a part of a routine drill following workout routines with Russia. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Sandra Maler and Cyntha Osterman)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015.

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