Washington rejects China’s claim after USS Charleston passage
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Voanews
Washington rejects Beijing’s accusation that the US ship USS Charleston entered its territorial waters without authorisation near the disputed Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea. The US State Department defends freedom of navigation and calls on China to end its aggressive manoeuvres, according to VOA.
The United States on Thursday rejected China’s claim that the US littoral combat ship USS Charleston had illegally entered its territorial waters near Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea. Beijing had sent naval forces to track the vessel’s transit, according to the US State Department, quoted by Voice of America.
Washington defended the right of its ships to sail wherever international law permits and called on China to end what it described as aggressive manoeuvres. The State Department says Beijing’s enforcement of maritime claims that it considers illegal threatens regional stability.
Sabina Shoal, called Escoda by the Philippines and Xianbin by China, is about 75 nautical miles west of the Philippine island of Palawan. US researcher Peter Dutton, a maritime law specialist at Yale University’s Paul Tsai China Center, says the low-tide elevation generates neither a territorial sea nor other maritime rights under Article 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Summary produced with the help of artificial intelligence tools, under AFREEQUE’s editorial responsibility.
