Taipei Times
Date: Nov 04, 2015
By: AFP, BEIJING
The US military will continue to operate wherever international law allows, a top US
US Admiral Harry Harris of US Pacific Command, left, chats with Chinese Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Fan Changlong before their meeting at the Bayi Building in Beijing yesterday. Photo: AP
admiral said in Beijing yesterday, a week after Washington infuriated Beijing by sailing close to artificial islands it is building in the South China Sea.
“International seas and airspace belong to everyone and are not the dominion of any single nation,” US Admiral Harry Harris said at the Stanford Center at Peking University.
“Our military will continue to fly, sail, and operate whenever and wherever international law allows. The South China Sea is not — and will not — be an exception,” he said, according to a transcript.
Harris is the head of the US Pacific Command and his public declaration in the Chinese capital is a mark of US resolve over the waterway, where Beijing has built up rocks and reefs into artificial islands with facilities for military use. [FULL STORY]
