MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA:
An American warship on Sunday sailed close to a disputed island in the South China Sea occupied by Beijing, as part of an operation to demonstrate freedom of navigation in the waters, a US official said.
The USS Stethem, a guided-missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island, part of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, the official said. The operation was first reported by Fox News on Sunday.
It was the second “freedom-of-navigation operation,” or “fonop,” conducted during the presidency of Donald Trump, following a drill in late May in which a U.S. warship sailed within 12 nautical miles of an artificial island built up by China in the South China Sea.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement the U.S. ship had made an unauthorised entry into China’s territorial waters.
FONOP. Freedom Of Navigation Operation. What the USN did was perfectly legal. China’s manufactured islets are illegal. But Beijing called the the FONOP a “serious political and military provocation…”
After the FONOP Chinese President Xi and President Trump spoke on the phone.
“Xi Jinping stressed that since his meeting with President Trump, important results have been achieved in China-U.S. relations,” Chinese state media outlet CCTV reported. “Meanwhile, bilateral relations have also been affected by some negative factors, for which the China side has expressed its position to the U.S. side.”