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US Navy’s chief of naval operations: South China Sea Is ‘Everybody’s Sea’

By Christopher P. Cavas
Defense News

WASHINGTON — Adm. John Richardson, in office as the US Navy’s chief of naval operations (CNO) for just over a month, has spent nearly half of that time on a world tour, traveling to Hawaii, Japan, South Korea, the Persian Gulf and Italy to gauge the state of global seapower and meet his international counterparts.

He’s also been assessing the activities of the Russian and Chinese navies, both of which are challenging the international scene in numerous ways. Richardson, in an interview Thursday with Defense News, was asked about a Chinese admiral’s claim in early September about one tension point, the South China Sea, where China has been building island bases and where territorial disputes involve several nations.

In those remarks, Vice Adm. Yuan Yubai, commander of the Chinese Navy’s northern fleet, said, “the South China Sea, as the name indicated, is a sea area that belongs to China. And since the Tang Dynasty a long time ago, the Chinese people have been working and producing around the sea area.”

In that Sept. 14 address, Yuan also spoke of China’s efforts to become a guarantor of safe passage over international waters — a role long embraced by the US.

Richardson isn’t buying it.

“What is coming into clear focus is that the defendant of the guarantor of prosperity and access is the system of rules and norms that we all abide by,” Richardson said. “It’s interesting that some of the folks that are making contrary claims now … are the very nations who prosper the most under the current system of international rules and norms.”

...Richardson spoke from Venice, Italy, where he was attending a regional seapower symposium...


...The US Navy has been preparing for a South China Sea demonstration cruise close to China’s newly constructed artificial islands. According to Pentagon sources, the destroyer Lassen has been on standby to make the transit, but so far hasn’t done so. Asked about when that would happen, Richardson declined to provide details.

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