The guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen on Oct. 27 sailed within 12 nautical miles of reclaimed islands controlled by Beijing in the South China Sea. © Reuters
TOKYO — While Washington seems to have won the first round of its confrontation with Beijing in disputed South China Sea waters, tensions are likely to remain high and geopolitical risks may mount as China continues to beef up its military.
The USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer equipped with the Aegis missile-defense system, left Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, on Oct. 27, and sailed within 12 nautical miles (22.2km) of artificial islands built by China on the Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly archipelago. The move highlighted that Washington considers China’s claim to territorial waters around the islands invalid under international law. Although two Chinese navy vessels shadowed the Lassen, warning it to leave the area, China refrained from taking more aggressive steps.
There have been run-ins between the two countries’ armed forces before. A Chinese fighter jet collided in 2001 with a U.S. reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea near the island of Hainan, which hosts a large Chinese military base, forcing the American aircraft to make an emergency landing. In 2009, a U.S. surveillance ship was surrounded and forcibly stopped by five Chinese vessels.
A Chinese military leader had said before the Lassen’s passage that Beijing will not use force recklessly, and its actions have borne that out so far. China may have realized that it would come out the loser in a naval standoff that escalates unexpectedly into actual shooting.