Chief affirms China sea stance

New Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson said that if international law allows freedom of navigation near China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea, then it should come as no surprise that the United States would exercise that right.

The U.S. government is said to be preparing to send a surface ship within 12 nautical miles of the artificial islands China has created in the contested Spratly Islands as a freedom-of-navigation demonstration.

“You take a look at the international law,” Richardson said Tuesday after an “all-hands” call with more than 1,000 sailors at Pearl Harbor. “If international law allows us to operate there, in general, then we should do that, right? We should feel free to do that. And it should not surprise anybody or come as anything that’s unconventional.”

Richardson said “as the president and the secretary of defense and the Pacific commander have said, I support that the United States Navy is a global navy, and we should feel free to sail, fly, operate anywhere that international law allows.”

China claims much of the South China Sea as part of its territory, an assertion rejected by the United States, which maintains the waters are international and can be traversed.

A 12-nautical-mile territorial limit normally applies to land, but the United States does not recognize China’s sovereign claims with the man-made islands it is creating. Some U.S. officials believe China will use the islands for military purposes to control shipping and airspace in the vitally important economic region.

A U.S. Navy patrol within 12 nautical miles would reinforce America’s contention that the waters are international. The United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea does not recognize artificial islands for territorial purposes.

Beijing issued a warning that it “will never allow any country to violate China’s territorial waters and airspace in the Spratly Islands in the name of protecting freedom of navigation and overflight,” news agency Reuters reported Friday.

The United States has begun briefing allies in Asia about the plan to conduct naval patrols near China’s artificial islands, The New York Times reported.

Richardson, who became the 31st chief of naval operations Sept. 18, along with Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Mike Stevens, stopped in Hawaii on a trip that also will include visits to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Bahrain and Italy to meet with sailors and military counterparts.

Richardson, a 1982 Naval Academy graduate, was stationed in Hawaii from 1999 to 2005 and commanded the attack submarine USS Honolulu.

“What I really want to get a sense of is, what’s on your minds? That’s sort of the reason for this tour,” Richardson told the crowd on Kilo Pier at Pearl Harbor. The Navy’s most senior officer recognized the service’s 240th anniversary, and Stevens led the group in singing “Happy Birthday” to the Navy.

The pair fielded questions ranging from whether situps would be eliminated from the physical readiness test to maternity leave for same-sex couples, retirement and the possibility of lighter shore-duty boots.

The rigors of combat duty also came up. Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Sparks, a Seabee, told Richardson and Stevens that for deployments with injury, “the process of healing when we come home is broken.”

“There’s no support from the higher echelon for funding for the amount of destruction that we’ve done to our bodies and our minds,” he said. “People are waiting months to get into appointments for mental health, and you kind of watch them deteriorate in front of your eyes.”

Sparks cited the case of a sailor who was highly decorated and had multiple combat tours who hurt himself in Afghanistan, “and when he got back he was not taken care of.” He asked about the possibility of emulating the Marine Corps wounded warrior regiment or Army wounded warrior transition battalion.

“C’mon up, shipmate,” Stevens said, asking Sparks to join him and Richardson after hearing the request. “It’s evident from your own personal experience that you’ve seen some challenges or had some challenges in this area, right? And I’m not going to take that away from you, because that is your experience. But different people have different experiences.”

Stevens noted the Navy Wounded Warrior — Safe Harbor program, described on its website as the Navy’s sole organization for coordinating the nonmedical care of seriously wounded, ill and injured sailors and Coast Guard personnel.

“I’ve seen them personally do some really, really good work with our folks,” Stevens said. He added that “as a whole, in the macro sense, we’re doing a pretty good job, but in the micro sense there are times when sailors slip through the cracks for whatever reason.”

Stevens asked whether he could talk more with Sparks after the all-hands call to get more details.