Therefore, the US provocations in the South China Sea are not only a hegemony declaration but also aim at strategically suppressing China. However, China has become stronger, which has undermined the abovementioned conditions. The conditions for such an action are that only Washington has the strength to do so, and even if other countries are upset, they can do nothing but bear the US' abuse of its hegemony. It was in fact a declaration of the US hegemony. The US warship came from afar to make provocations nearby the Chinese reef. It has become so exasperated that it crazily dispatched a warship to assert so-called freedom of navigation and trespass within 12 nautical miles of the Chinese reef. The US policy to make waves in the South China Sea and instigate Vietnam and the Philippines to confront China has failed. The Chinese side cannot remain indifferent, but must take countermeasures. There are many Chinese people and facilities on Meiji Reef, and the US warship that sailed so close to it apparently posed a threat. What the US has done is a naked provocation, and this is obvious to all. The US in particular has no right to do so given the fact that it has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. But international law doesn't empower any country to challenge others' sovereign claim with an intrusion by a warship. It claimed the Meiji reef "is not entitled to a territorial sea under international law," and "the land reclamation efforts, installations, and structures" built on the reef "do not change this characterization under international law."Ĭhina and the US don't agree on the nature of the 12 nautical miles of Meiji Reef. But it said the warship was asserting navigational rights and freedoms. In a 7th Fleet news release, the US side acknowledged that USS Benfold sailed within 12 nautical miles of Meiji Reef. The Chinese side mobilized aircraft and ships to warn off and expel the ship from the waters. US Guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold trespassed in waters near the Meiji Reef in the South China Sea Wednesday without permission from China.