Navy Commanding Officer Describes Encounters With Chinese Ships on South China Sea Patrol
U.S.S. LASSEN
Fox News - Nov 6, 2015
The commanding officer of a U.S. Navy destroyer that challenged China's territorial claims in the South China Sea last week spoke for the first time of his ship's encounters with Beijing's navy Thursday.
Cmdr. Robert C. Francis Jr. told reporters that the USS Lassen patrolled with about six or seven miles of Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands, well within the 12-mile territorial limit claimed by China.
Francis said the crew of a Chinese destroyer that shadowed the Lassen for several days contacted the ship with a standard "query" about what the Lassen was doing. Francis said his crew replied that it was operating in international waters in accord with international law.
But the Chinese pressed the matter, he said, by repeating the query over and over.
"All of our interactions were very professional," Francis said. "I never felt threatened." According to Reuters, Francis said the Lassen has had about 50 "interactions" with Chinese military planes and ships on his patrols in the South and East China Seas since May. The commander described that amount of contact as routine.
"Every day a U.S. ship is down here, we interact with the Chinese," Francis said.
Not all of the interactions are filled with tension. Francis described one encounter with a Chinese vessel that was downright light-hearted.
"[The crew] picked up the phone and just talked to him like, 'Hey, what are you guys doing this Saturday? Oh, we got pizza and wings. What are you guys eating? Oh, we're doing this. Hey, we're planning for Halloween as well'," Francis said. He added that the Chinese sailors responded to their queries in English and talked about themselves, their families and places they've traveled to."
The point of such casual chat, Francis said, was to "show them ... that we're normal sailors, just like them, have families, just like them."
Francis said that as the Chinese destroyer that had been shadowing the Lassen past the artificial islands turned away, "they said, 'Hey, we're not going to be with you anymore. Wish you a pleasant voyage. Hope to see you again.'"
In the United States, much was made of the Lassen patrol, known in the U.S. Navy as a freedom of navigation operation. But Francis said he and his crew saw it as just another day on the seas.
"We enjoyed the extra publicity," he said.
Francis was interviewed on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt, where Defense Secretary Ash Carter and his Malaysian counterpart, Hishammuddin Hussein, watched U.S. Navy fighter jets roar off the aircraft carrier's steel deck.
Carter's visit drew extra attention because of the ship's location, about 150 miles to 200 miles from the Spratlys, and the tensions surrounding China's reclamation work, which Adm. Harry Harris, head of U.S. forces in the Pacific, has likened to building a "great wall of sand" with the potential for confrontations to escalate into armed conflict.
The U.S. contends that under international law the artificial islands built by China are high seas. That means they are not eligible for the 12-nautical-mile zone granted to maritime features such as naturally formed islands capable of sustaining human habitation or economic life.
The Associated Press Contributed To This Report.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/11/06/navy-commanding-officer-describes-encounters-with-chinese-ships-on-south-china/?intcmp=hplnwsU.S. Navy Sends Destroyer by Man-Made Islands in Challenge to China's Claims
By David Larter, Staff writer -- October 27, 2015 -- Navy Times
The Lassen is expected to pass within 12 nautical miles of the Chinese-claimed reefs, including Subi Reef and Mischief Reef, where China is suspected of building runways that can accommodate military aircraft in moves that have sparked tensions in the region.
Prior to the patrol, a vessel with China's People's Liberation Army-Navy shadowed the Lassen. The patrol is a freedom-of-navigation patrol, intended to challenge Chinese claims of sovereignty over the islands, which China is using to bolster its claims to control over nearly all of the South China Sea.
Six nations in the region lay claim to parts or all of the Spratly Islands, a collection of reefs, rocks and other natural features. In the last two years, China has begun constructing islands on top of the reefs and claiming territorial seas around them to gain fishing and resource rights to most of the South China Sea.
Alleged reclamation by China is seen on what is internationally recognized as the Johnson South Reef in the South China Sea. (Photo: Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs/AFP)
Lawmakers and observers have been calling for the U.S. to conduct a freedom-of-navigation patrol in the Spratly Islands to counter China's claims, arguing that failing to do so legitimizes China's claims.
Navy Times reported the patrol was imminent Oct. 8, pending approval from the Obama administration.
China has called for the U.S. to avoid militarizing the dispute by sending a warship through their claimed territorial sea and has pledged not to put military equipment on the island.
After news of the pending patrol, the U.S. Navy's top officer said in mid-October that the patrol was not intended to be seen as aggressive.
"I think that we have to continue to proceed in accordance with international norms," Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John M. Richardson told reporters Oct. 15. "[This is] part of routine navigation in international waters, consistent with international rules there: I don't see how these could be interpreted as provocative in any way."
Virginia Republican Rep. Randy Forbes, one lawmaker who has called for the Navy to patrol within the 12-nautical-mile limit, praised the decision to green-light the mission.
"The passage of U.S. vessels within 12 nautical miles of China's man-made features in the South China Sea is a necessary and overdue response to China's destabilizing behavior in the region," Forbes said in a statement. "International law is clear that China has no legitimate claim to sovereignty over these waters, and it is high time that this administration reaffirmed America's enduring commitment to freedom of navigation and the maintenance of peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region."