US sent warship to South China Sea to confront China: American analyst

The United States is essentially “confronting” China by sending a guided-missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles to one of China's artificial islands in the South China Sea, an American political analyst says.

On Tuesday, the USS Lassen sailed around Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands archipelago, a disputed group of hundreds of reefs, islets, atolls and islands in the South China, said a US military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The United States sending a destroyer into the South China Sea is indicating that it’s doing so essentially to confront China,” said Rodney Martin, former US Congressional Staffer.

“It is more American schizophrenic policy,” Martin told Press TV on Tuesday, adding “the United States is still trying to hold on to its hegemony in Asia against China.”

The move “is a combination of the United States trying to hold on to what’s left of its empire as well as come up with additional bogeymen and enemies so that it can fire up its military establishment,” he opined.

“You’re going to see more of these provocations and that what this is, this is the United States engaging in a provocation, you know poking the stick and trying to make the Chinese do something,” he added.

However, he said, “the Chinese are far too smart, I think they will react in terms of economics, they hold far too much economic advantage over the United States.”

“They will utilize their alliances with Russia and India and I think they will continue to render the United States irrelevant as the other countries,” he added.

Earlier on Tuesday before the US confirmed the move, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi issued a warning, saying that "we advise the US side to think twice before action, not to conduct any rash action, and not to create trouble out of nothing."

China has repeatedly said it has sovereignty over the sea, with Chinese Vice Admiral Yuan Yubai, commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) North Sea Fleet, insisting back in September that the South China Sea belongs to China.

However, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims over the South China Sea.