China tracks USS Charleston near Sabina Shoal — SkimNews
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- China's Southern Theatre Command said the USS Charleston "illegally intruded" into waters adjacent to Sabina Shoal in the Spratly Islands in the early hours of Tuesday and dispatched naval forces to track and monitor the ship.
- The command's statement accused the US of infringing on China's sovereign rights and said "the US side should immediately cease such activities," calling the operation detrimental to regional peace and stability.
- The US Navy generally characterizes such missions as "freedom of navigation operations," though its last known such patrol in the South China Sea was more than a year ago and it did not immediately respond to a comment request.
- Last month, a China Coast Guard vessel rammed a Philippine boat on a refuelling mission near the same shoal, with Beijing blaming the collision on Manila rather than acknowledging its role.
- In a separate incident, Taiwan's Coast Guard dispatched the Taichung to warn away a Chinese Coast Guard ship that entered restricted waters near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands, roughly between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong.
- The Chinese vessel broadcast that "the so-called Republic of China does not exist," while the Taichung replied that "the Republic of China, Taiwan, is a sovereign and independent country," and China's Taiwan Affairs Office said last week that Taipei must "bear the consequences" of an earlier water-cannon incident nearby.
Why it matters: China and the Philippines both claim Sabina Shoal and the wider Spratly chain, and Manila's mutual defense treaty with Washington keeps the US militarily entangled in the dispute. Two confrontations on a single Tuesday, a warship intrusion and a Taiwan-flagged sovereignty argument at Pratas, show Beijing pressing routine probes on multiple South China Sea fronts at once rather than picking one flashpoint.
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