U.S. Navy guided-missile ship sails near disputed Spratlys

The guided-missile destroyer USS Milius sails near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, Monday, April 10, 2023. (Greg Johnson/U.S. Navy)  

A U.S. Navy  guided-missile destroyer cruised near the Spratly chain of islands claimed by China and other countries as Beijing’s recent military exercises concluded April 10 near Taiwan.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Milius held a “freedom-of-navigation operation” near Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, a group of about 100 islands between Vietnam and the Philippines, to uphold the “rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea,” the U.S. 7th Fleet said in a Monday release to Stars and Stripes.

The entire Spratly chain is claimed by China, Vietnam and Taiwan; portions of the chain are claimed by the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. The Spratlys are about 960 miles south of Taiwan.

“These operations demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows – regardless of the location of excessive maritime claims and regardless of current events,” according to 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. j.g. Luka Bakic in an email to Stars and Stripes.

About 45 islands in the Spratlys are occupied by small military outposts from China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, according to the CIA World Factbook website.

During the operation, the Milius sailed within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef, one of several islands that China has modified and built military infrastructure on over the past decade.

Under international law, Bakic said, features like Mischief Reef are not part of a territorial sea because “in their naturally formed state” they are submerged during high tide.

“The land reclamation efforts, installations, and structures built on Mischief Reef do not change this characterization under international law,” he said.