Military Times reports that China criticized the U.S. on Wednesday after a fly-by of two B-52 bombers by the Chinese-held Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, during a period of escalating words and demonstrations of military might from the two major Pacific powers.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying warned the U.S. against “hyping up militarization and stirring up trouble,” while promising that China would do whatever was necessary to defend its sovereignty.
The U.S. “doing whatever they want is risky and China will not be threatened by any military warships,” Hua told reporters at a daily briefing in Beijing.
The fly-by of the shoal, which China seized from the Philippines in 2012, came after U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis accused Beijing of “intimidation and coercion” in the South China Sea. China claims almost the entirety of the south China Sea — a resource-rich area that also has some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes — despite ownership claims from neighboring countries including the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan.
Speaking at a summit of top security officials in Singapore last weekend, Mattis said China has deployed anti-ship missiles and surface-to-air missiles and landed nuclear capable bombers on the disputed islands. He vowed that the Indo-Pacific would remain a “priority theater” for U.S. forces.
China announced it had dispatched warships and aircraft to drive away two U.S. Navy vessels sailing close to Chinese holdings in the Paracel Island chain last Sunday, where China recently revealed it had landed strategic bombers on an airstrip for the first time. The two ships, the destroyer USS Higgins and the cruiser USS Antietam, were engaged in Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) to dispute China’s claims of sovereignty in the area.
The Chinese bombers landing on the Paracel Islands escalated regional tensions, and resulted in the Pentagon withdrawing its invitation for China to participate in multinational naval exercises near Hawaii, in order to protest China’s military moves in the South China Sea.
Seems the Chinese still haven’t got the hint, so a couple BUFFs* were dispatched to remind them the U.S. does not recognize their illegal territorial claims, and is not happy with nuclear capable bombers on the islands. We’ll have wait to see what, if any, effect it will have.
*Big, Ugly, Fat, err, Fellows.
