China faults US on naval incident
Analysts: More episodes likely
BEIJING - China responded sharply yesterday to Washington's accusations over a confrontation at sea, an incident that analysts said could become more common as Beijing strengthens its navy and asserts claims to adjacent waters.
The United States accused Chinese ships of surrounding and harassing its Navy vessel in international waters, coming within 25 feet of the USNS Impeccable, stopping dead in front of it and strewing debris in its path. Some of the Chinese crew even stripped to their underwear after a blast by US fire hoses.
But China's Foreign Ministry said the American vessel "broke international and Chinese laws in the South China Sea without China's permission."
Sunday's incident will probably be discussed when Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi visits Washington this week. The US Embassy in Beijing lodged a protest with the Foreign Ministry and said the Navy mapping vessel had been conducting "routine operations . . . in accordance with customary international law."
The latest confrontation between US surveillance craft and Chinese coastal defenses took place in international waters in the South China Sea about 75 miles south of China's Hainan Island, the home of numerous Chinese naval installations.
Observers said Beijing appeared to be asserting its claim to refuse rights to foreign navies wanting to carry out surveillance within its 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
The zone, under international law, gives a state certain rights over the use of natural resources there. Shen Dingli, director of the Center of American Studies at Shanghai's Fudan University, said China wants to exert control in the waters beyond economic interests.
"China considers that international law only allows innocent passage for military vessels in its zone, not activities that could be considered to have a military purpose," he said .
That clashes with one of the cardinal principles of America's doctrine of ocean navigation: the right to unrestricted passage in international waters as long as vessels are not encroaching on the economic interests of the country it is passing.
While the United States has offered talks, neither side appears willing to compromise.
China has recorded at least 200 instances of US vessels collecting intelligence in China's exclusive economic zone, but generally chose to avoid confrontation, said Guan Jianqiang, an international law expert at Shanghai's East China University of Politics and Law.
The latest incident had overtones of spycraft, but the US ship is not, strictly speaking, a spy ship. It maps the ocean floor, compiling information the Navy can use to steer its submarines or track those of other nations.
Hainan hosts numerous naval and air force installations and is the home of Beijing's newest submarine base. An overall naval upgrade is adding advanced missile and possibly one or more aircraft carriers in coming years.
