U.S. Warship Challenges China's Claims in Spratly Islands Operation

The Chinese military accused an American warship of trespassing in disputed waters in the South China Sea on Tuesday after the U.S. actively challenged China's contentious claims for the third time this year.

The U.S. Navy's Japan-based Seventh Fleet said USS Chancellorsville, a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, "asserted navigational rights and freedoms" near the Spratly Islands, an archipelago claimed by half a dozen governments in the region, but most forcefully by Beijing.

"At the conclusion of the operation, USS Chancellorsville exited the excessive claim area and continued operations in the South China Sea," it said of the freedom of navigation operation, or FONOP.

Tian Junli, a spokesperson for the People's Liberation Army (PLA)'s Southern Theater Command, said the U.S. warship "illegally entered" the waters near the islands, which China calls Nansha. Chinese naval and air forces shadowed and expelled the American cruiser, Tian said.

China asserts maritime rights over nearly the entirety of the energy-rich South China Sea by dint of its territorial claims to all islands and reefs in the area, in defiance of a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that dismissed these assertions.

"China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and their adjacent waters," Tian said.

Beijing's insistence is a common cause of friction with other regional claimants.

During a visit to the Philippines last week, Vice President Kamala Harris said the 2016 decision to reject Beijing's maritime claims was "legally binding and must be respected."

Manila is among Washington's oldest allies in Asia and an attack on Philippine forces in the South China Sea would trigger U.S. defense obligations.

The Chancellorsville's FONOP was the Navy's third in the waters this year and its first since mid-July. The same ship was involved in a transit of the Taiwan Strait in August, another type of operation that similarly seeks to challenge Chinese claims over vital international shipping lanes.

China tends not to advertise instances when the U.S. Navy pushes back against its claims in disputed waters. More often than not, its statements follow publications by the U.S. military, which it accuses of violating Chinese sovereignty and creating risks in the South China Sea.

In an update to its original communiqué, the Seventh Fleet said China had misrepresented "lawful U.S. maritime operations" in the region.

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"The operation reflects our continued commitment to uphold freedom of navigation and lawful uses of the sea as a principle," it said.

In a rare response to the Navy's standard rebuttal, China's southern command rebuked the U.S. for "quibbling" over the incident. It shared images of a PLA Navy sailor monitoring the U.S. warship at the time of the operation.

In another sign of the fierce narrative competition in the information space, the Chinese statement included an illustrative map claiming the Chancellorsville made a sharp left turn before sailing past Fiery Cross Reef—known as Yongshu in Chinese—one of three reefs the U.S. believes China has fully militarized.

"Unlawful and sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea pose a serious threat to the freedom of the seas, including the freedoms of navigation and overflight, free trade, and unimpeded commerce, and freedom of economic opportunity for South China Sea littoral nations," the Seventh Fleet said.

The Navy's previous FONOPs in the South China Sea in 2022 were conducted by Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Benfold, which sailed near the Spratlys on January 18 before challenging China's claims to the Paracel Islands two days later.

The Benfold conducted a similar double FONOP between the Paracels and Spratlys on July 13 and 16, leaving open the possibility of the Chancellorsville doing the same this week.

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