South China Sea: US bomber angers Beijing with Spratly islands flypast

China’s Defense Ministry said earlier the USA was deliberately raising tensions in the region, where China has been aggressively asserting its claims to most of the man-made reefs in the sea.

It demanded Washington immediately take measures to prevent such incidents and damage to the relations.

The U.S. takes no official stance on sovereignty claims in the strategically crucial sea that China claims nearly in its entirety. China has also attempted to impose a 12-nautical mile limit around the islands, contrary to global law, which says such limits cannot be set around islands built on previously submerged reefs.

BJP general secretary Ram Madhav and Chinese ambassador Le Yucheng shared opposing views on the contentious issue of South China Sea on Saturday.

Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said: “The United States routinely conducts B-52 training missions throughout the region, including over the South China Sea”.

The Pentagon said it was looking to the criticism. Bill Urban as saying in Washington that China had raised its complaints over the flight and the USA was investigating.

It was the second time US B-52 bombers flew near the heavily disputed islands in an exercise the U.S. described as a freedom of navigation operations and came two weeks after the Royal Australian Air Force carried out the surveillance flight on November 25.

Speaking to reporters on a visit to Berlin, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi drew a contrast between the situation in the South China Sea region and the chaos and turmoil in other parts of the world.

Reuters also reported on December 18 that Japan, which has a number of outstanding territorial disputes with China, was upgrading its defenses on its islands in the East China Sea.

On the surface, it nearly looks like the stuff that took place during our kindergarten days: the stronger flexing the muscles against the weaker in a clear attempt of deliberate provocation, in order to derive some pleasure, which, in retrospect, we love to classify as the bullyboy tactics of our childhood contemporaries.

The bombers are just the latest incident causing friction with US-China relations.

In October, the US sent a warship into the region as part of a direct challenge to China’s territorial claims.

Chinese government officials filed a complaint with the US embassy in Beijing after a USA bomber flew close to disputed islands.

The US is critical of China for building artificial islands in the disputed sea, and has flown other B-52 bombers and sailed a guided-missile destroyer near some of the constructions in recent months.