China Justifies Military Moves Near Islands As Asia-Pacific Feuds Heat Up

China is justifying military campaigns near two disputed sets of islands in the Asia-Pacific by claiming sovereignty over the territories while its feud with the United States and several countries over the area heats up.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Monday that China had the right to conduct coast guard patrols going on for nearly 13 consecutive weeks near the Paracel Islands controlled by Japan in the East China Sea and to close off the waters surrounding the Vietnam-claimed Pinnacle Islands for training in the South China Sea from July 1 to July 5 because both are part of the country's territory.

His comments came after Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga denounced China's recurring operations near the Pinnacle Islands at a news conference over the weekend. Suga said at the time that Japanese officials "have been strongly urging China to stop trying to approach the Japanese fishing boat and leave our territorial waters immediately."

But Zhao told Monday's briefing in Beijing that the islands known to China as the Diaoyu and to Japan as the Senkakus "are China's inherent territory" so "China enjoys the inherent right to patrol and enforce law" there.

Zhao also reiterated to reporters that "the Xisha Islands are indisputably China's territory"—using the Chinese name for the Paracel Islands, which Vietnam calls the Hoang Sa Archipelago. "China's military training in the waters surrounding the Xisha Islands is within China's sovereignty and beyond reproach," he added.

The islands, which saw a short but deadly skirmish between Chinese and Vietnamese forces in 1974, has witnessed a resurgence in frictions between the two East Asian powers whose vessels have physically collided multiple times this year near oil and fishing spots by the Paracel Islands. As Washington and Hanoi build closer ties, President Donald Trump's administration has sought to push back on Chinese activity in a region considered to be international territory by the U.S.

China's drills at the Paracel Islands were met with opposition not only from Vietnam, but also from the U.S. In a statement published Thursday, the Pentagon said that the People's Liberation Army's exercises near the Paracel Islands "will further destabilize the situation in the South China Sea" and constitute a violation of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea through which parties vowed "to avoid activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability."

The July 2 statement also said the drills and other Chinese territorial claims "stand in contrast to its pledge to not militarize the South China Sea and the United States' vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, in which all nations, large and small, are secure in their sovereignty, free from coercion, and able to pursue economic growth consistent with accepted international rules and norms."

That same day, the Vietnamese Defense Ministry released a readout of talks between deputy defense officials from both countries, who "agreed to step up cooperation in the fields that are suitable to the common relationship between the two countries." The Philippines has joined Vietnam in protesting China's training near the Paracel Islands and the U.S. on Monday announced rare dual aircraft carrier drills conducted by the USS Nimitz and the Nimitz-class USS Ronald Reagan in the South China Sea in support of a "free and open Indo-Pacific."

Zhao lashed out at the U.S. exercise during Monday's press conference, saying that "it is completely out of ulterior motives that the U.S. flexes its muscles by purposely sending powerful military force to the relevant waters for large-scale exercises." He accused Washington of trying to divide the countries of the region and of threatening peace and stability there.

In a statement sent to Newsweek, USS Ronald Reagan spokesperson Navy Lieutenant Commander Sean Brophy said that the recent South China Sea drills did not come in response to any world events but that the tensions arising from activities such as the Chinese exercise near the Paracel Islands "demonstrate how now more than ever, working alongside our allies and partners is vital to supporting regional stability."

Even as U.S.-China encounters in the region were on the rise, he said the Navy expected no problems from its counterparts in the People's Liberation Army or any other armed forces.

"We fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, regularly interacting with navies from across the region," Brophy told Newsweek. "When these interactions occur, we anticipate they will be safe and professional in accordance with international regulation and norms."

Beijing has laid claims to the most of the resource-rich, commercially-vital waters of the South China Sea but these claims are contested by Washington, as well as the regional governments of Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, which have their own claims to the South China Sea and its various islands, islets and reefs.

Taiwan also considers the East China Sea Pinnacle Islands as part of its territory but this was often overshadowed by China's claims to the entirety of self-ruling Taiwan. Though Chinese President Xi Jinping has increased training to potentially retake Taiwan, his government has also called for greater cross-strait relations, including in joining forces against Japan's control of the Pinnacle Islands.

In one of the latest acts against Japanese presence there, Chinese ships sailed by the Pinnacle Islands over the weekend for nearly 40 hours in the longest such incident in eight years, according to the Japan Coast Guard.

The uptick in Chinese activity comes as Japan renamed an administrative district overseeing the islands, embarked on a defense policy review that weighs acquiring new U.S. weapons systems and held naval drills alongside India, another Asian proponent of the U.S.-led "free and open Indo-Pacific" order and currently locked in a deadly border standoff with China.

This article has been updated to include comments from a Navy spokesperson for the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.