A Newsweek map shows where the United States challenged “excessive maritime claims” through freedom of navigation operations during the fiscal year 2024.
The Pentagon said such operations aim to maintain the “global mobility of U.S. forces,” demonstrating that they will continue to fly, sail, and operate “wherever international law allows.”
China had the most maritime claims challenged, according to a report. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., told Newsweek that the U.S. used freedom of navigation as an excuse to meddle in regional affairs and maintain its own “hegemony.”
Why It Matters
The U.S. government has been carrying out a freedom of navigation program since 1979, aimed at preserving its national interest in exercising and asserting its rights, freedoms, and uses of the sea worldwide.
American warships and military aircraft are frequently deployed to challenge claims that Washington believes infringe on freedom of navigation, particularly in the South China Sea, where China’s sweeping sovereignty claims overlap with those of other regional states.
What To Know
On August 14, a Beijing-based think tank, the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative, said the Pentagon recently released its annual report of freedom of navigation for fiscal year 2024, which began on October 1, 2023, and ended on September 30, 2024.
The report, prepared by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, summarized America’s operational challenges to purported excessive maritime claims asserted by a total of 11 countries across East and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Central America.
China had four claims—three in the South China Sea and one in the East China Sea—that were challenged by U.S. forces multiple times, while one of its claims—historic rights in the South China Sea—was challenged by the U.S. with its “international partners and allies.”
The remaining Chinese claims in the South China Sea that were challenged involved the requirement for prior permission for the innocent passage of foreign navies through China’s territorial sea, as well as straight baselines that do not conform with international law.
Innocent passage refers to the right to transit through the territorial sea of another state in a continuous and expeditious manner that must not be prejudicial to the peace, good order, or security of that state, according to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Straight baselines delineate the waters over which a country claims full jurisdiction. Last year, Beijing released a list of 16 base points connected by straight baselines around Scarborough Shoal, an atoll that China seized from the Philippines in a 2012 standoff.
For the Chinese claim in the East China Sea, the Pentagon said China imposed restrictions on foreign aircraft flying through its air defense identification zone—established in 2013 for early warning purposes—without the intent to enter the country’s territorial airspace.
In addition to China, the other countries whose claims were challenged by U.S. forces were Croatia and Estonia—both NATO allies—as well as Honduras, Iran, Malaysia, Oman, Taiwan—a U.S. security partner—the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Yemen.
Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, told Newsweek on Monday that the U.S. freedom of navigation program is characterized by consistency and non-discrimination, as it does not distinguish between friends and foes.
This gives Washington a “moral high ground” in asserting its maritime freedoms against excessive claims and the creeping expansion of coastal states’ maritime jurisdictions, he said.
The Pentagon has stated that its comprehensive freedom of navigation operations are conducted in an even-handed manner, challenging claims based on principle rather than on the identity of the coastal state asserting them, including those of allies and partners.
Case of South China Sea
Koh, who tracks U.S. freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, noted that there has been a drop in publicized operations in the region since the Biden administration, which could be attributed to Washington’s concern about stabilizing relations with Beijing.
“I suppose [freedom of navigation operations] would continue to be run on an ‘as and when needed’ basis,” the analyst said, adding that the second Trump administration is unlikely to regularize the operations in a way that would undermine its broader agenda with China.
America’s naval capacity could also explain the reduction in the frequency of freedom of navigation operations, Koh said, adding that U.S. naval vessels assigned to tasks in the broader Western Pacific have many responsibilities that need to be prioritized.
“It is untenable for the U.S. to make an issue of ‘freedom of navigation’ when the South China Sea is one of the world’s freest and safest waters for navigation,” Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., told Newsweek on Sunday.
China respects the freedom of navigation and overflight to which countries are entitled under international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, he said.
“However, there is a huge difference between navigation and trespassing, and between freedom and willfulness,” the spokesperson continued, warning countries outside the South China Sea area—which he did not identify—not to “stir up trouble” in the region.
Meanwhile, America’s allies and partners in the South China Sea would generally view freedom of navigation operations as helping to uphold the rules-based order, Koh said.
“I believe some [Southeast] Asian countries generally at least view that as a form of stabilizing presence in a similar light.”
What People Are Saying
Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., told Newsweek: “We firmly stand against ‘willful trespassing’ and oppose any country conducting unlawful provocations in the name of ‘freedom of navigation’ to harm the sovereignty and security of coastal countries and undermine regional peace and stability.”
Collin Koh, a senior fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore, told Newsweek: “There would naturally and understandably be concerns about whether [freedom of navigation operations] could result in close encounters between Chinese and American forces, resulting in potential inadvertent or accidental clashes.”
What Happens Next
It is likely that the U.S. military will continue its freedom of navigation operations in the disputed waters of the East and South China Seas as part of Washington’s broader efforts to counter China’s growing maritime presence across the Western Pacific.
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