US won’t pull back from S China Sea ops

KUALA LUMPUR: An American general insisted on Friday the United States would not pull back from operations in the disputed South China Sea to combat Beijing’s territorial claims despite a series of accidents involving US warships.

General Terrence O’Shaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces commander, said the American military still had "credibility... all over the world" despite the incidents, which have raised concerns that the US armed forces are overstretched in Asia.

In the latest incident, the USS John S McCain collided with a tanker off Singapore early on Monday, tearing a huge hole in the vessel’s hull and leaving two sailors dead and eight missing. It was the fourth accident involving an American warship in the Pacific this year, two of them fatal.

The McCain had been heading to the city-state after conducting a "freedom of navigation" mission -- sailing cluose to a contested island in the South China Sea in a show of strength to challenge Beijing’s territorial claims.

The US has been carrying out a growing number of such operations in recent years as China increasingly asserts its claims to almost the entire sea, despite partial counter-claims from some Asian neighbours.

"There is no setback to those freedom of navigation operations following these incidents," O’Shaughnessy told reporters during a visit to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur. "We stand firm that we are going to sail and fly anywhere where international rules allow. We will continue to do that."

"Every day, we have operations within the South China Sea and areas surrounding it." He added that the latest collision should not eclipse the work of the US military as a whole.