The U.S. Navy is standing its ground and said it will not leave the South China Sea despite new Chinese military facilities on artificial islands in the region.
Lt. Cmdr. Hawkins, on board the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson, said the Navy has carried out routine patrols in the South China Sea for 70 years, and there was no immediate plan to stop those patrols.
“International law allows us to operate here, allows us to fly here, allows us to train here, allows us to sail here, and that’s what we’re doing and we’re going to continue to do that,” Hawkins told the AP.
“We’re committed,” he said. “We’re here.
He went to explain the importance of patrolling the area.
“We’re prepared to conduct a spectrum of operations, whether that’s providing humanitarian assistance, disaster relief in the time of an emergency, or whether we have to conduct operations that require us to send strike fighters ashore,” Hawkins said. “We don’t have to use that spectrum, but we’re ready to, in case we need to.”
That last sentence should be chilling for Chinese navy commanders — “we’re ready to, in case we need to.” It’s an implied threat of what could happen if the United States is pressed to hard — and it’s a threat the Chinese should understand very well. – READ MORE
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