Beijing lambastes US warship patrol in South China Sea as tensions rise over waterway, North Korea

Beijing issued a scathing rebuke on July 3 of a US warship's patrol a day earlier near a contested island occupied by Chinese troops in the South China Sea -- the latest irritant in the two powers' increasingly fraught relationship.

The patrol, the second known "freedom of navigation" operation under the administration of US President Donald Trump, came as the White House appeared to grow ever more frustrated with China over its moves in the waterway and lack of progress on the North Korean nuclear issue.

Sunday's operation, which involved the Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture-based USS Stethem guided-missile destroyer, was conducted within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Triton Island in the Paracel archipelago, a US defense official confirmed to The Japan Times.

China's Defense Ministry lambasted the move in a statement, issuing what appeared to one of the strongest condemnations yet of the US operation which Washington says is aimed at affirming its right to passage.

The US "actions seriously damaged the strategic mutual trust between the two sides" and undermined the "political atmosphere" surrounding the development of Sino-US military ties, the statement said. The Chinese military, it added, would take bolstered measures in the waters, including "an increase in the intensity of air and sea patrols."

The tiny islet is also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam, and is not one of the seven fortified man-made islands located in the South China Sea's Spratly chain, which is further south.

Late July 2, China's Foreign Ministry said that it had dispatched military ships and fighter jets in response to warn off the Stethem, which it said had "trespassed" in "the country's territorial waters."

"Under the pretext of 'freedom of navigation,' the US side once again sent a military vessel into China's territorial waters off the Xisha Islands without China's approval," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in a statement using the Chinese name for the Paracel Islands.

The US, he said, "has violated the Chinese law and relevant international law, infringed upon China's sovereignty, disrupted peace, security, and order of the relevant waters, and put in jeopardy the facilities and personnel on the Chinese islands."

Lu said the US "deliberately stirs up troubles in the South China Sea" and "is running in the opposite direction from countries in the region who aspire for stability, cooperation, and development," adding that the patrol "constitutes a serious political and military provocation.

FONOPs represent "a challenge to excessive maritime claims," according to the US Defense Department. The significance of the distance of 12 nautical miles derives from the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which generally grants coastal states jurisdiction over seas within 12 nautical miles of land within their territory.

The patrol was believed to be the second near Triton Island, after a similar FONOP under the administration of President Barack Obama in January 2016. The July 2 operation was first reported by Fox News.

Ahead of the patrol, there has been growing speculation that the White House is frustrated not only with Beijing's moves in the strategic waterway, but also its failure to rein in North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

This frustration was seen in a tweet sent by Trump late last month, when he wrote: "While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi  China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!"

And on June 30, in a step that the White House said was not aimed at Beijing, the Trump administration unveiled new sanctions against a Chinese bank linked to North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs. The sanctions came just a day after the US announced a new $1.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan.

Earlier last week, the US State Department also listed China among the worst human-trafficking offenders in an annual report.

According to Mira Rapp-Hooper, an Asia expert at the Center for a New American Security think-tank in Washington, the July 2 FONOP was "not particularly provocative," and was "basically a repeat of an earlier one.

"But given that the administration also announced North Korean sanctions and a Taiwan arms package, it's hard to see the timing as pure coincidence," Rapp-Hooper said. "This may not be an effort to pressure China to specific ends, rather a 'snap back' in Trump administration foreign policy, which was solicitous of Beijing for several months as it sought help on North Korea."

"The White House now understands that Beijing will not solve this problem for it," she added.

Zack Cooper, an Asia scholar with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, noted the timing between previous FONOPs and the rapid-clip announcements of recent US actions against China.

"These four actions have come in just five days," he said, adding that the last FONOP was just under 40 days ago, while the one before that took place more than 215 days earlier.

However, Lt. Cmdr. Matt Knight, a spokesman for the US Navy's Pacific Fleet, said in a statement that "FONOPs are not about any one country, nor are they about making political statements."

"US forces operate in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region on a daily basis," Knight said. "All operations are conducted in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows.

"That is true in the South China Sea as in other places around the globe," he added.

China has continued to militarize its outposts there -- despite a pledge to the contrary -- as it seeks to reinforce effective control of much of the waterway, through which $5 trillion in trade passes each year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei also have overlapping claims.

Now, with fewer constraints on a tougher approach to China across the board, experts say Trump could butt heads with Beijing over a number of issues.

"What we know for sure is that the Trump administration is now more comfortable with higher levels of friction with China than in previous months," said Ely Ratner, a former deputy national security adviser to US Vice President Joe Biden and current senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.