The nation’s top admiral Monday insisted the U.S. freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea are not intended to provoke Beijing, but rather intended to “advocate for the right thing without being confrontational.”
“We’re not out there to increase tensions,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson told the annual conference of the Center for a New American Security in Washington.
“What could be less confrontative than just an operation that sails a ship completely consistent with existing international law, just advocates for that system?” Richardson asked.
He stressed that most interactions between the Chinese and U.S. navies are professional and unremarkable.
“I was just out on the [U.S. aircraft carrier] John. C. Stennis when they were in the South China Sea,” Richardson said. “They are there in a very busy neighborhood as you can imagine. You can see from the Stennis that there were ships from the People’s Liberation Army Navy, in visible range.”
But Richardson said the carrier strike group commander assured him that the Chinese Navy has mostly maintained a routine and professional posture, operating according to protocols established under the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea, or “CUES” agreement.
“Even these freedom-of-navigation ops have by and large been conducted consistent with the CUES agreement,” Richardson said.
Last month, China protested when the U.S. destroyer William P. Lawrence sailed by China’s largest man-made island, the third freedom-of-navigation operation in seven months that challenges Beijing’s vast claims in the South China Sea.
China is bracing for a possible unfavorable ruling by a U.N. arbitration court in The Hague as soon as next week. Beijing insists the U.N. has no jurisdiction in the case, and has refused to take part in the proceedings.
Next month, Richardson is scheduled to visit China and meet with his counterpart Adm. Wu Shengli.
