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 The head of U.S. naval operations, Admiral John Richardson,
expressed concern that an international court ruling expected in
coming weeks on a case brought by the Philippines against China over
its South China Sea claims could be a trigger for Beijing to declare
an exclusion zone in the busy trade route.
Richardson told Reuters the United States was weighing responses to
such a move.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5
trillion in global trade passes every year. Vietnam, Malaysia,
Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.
Richardson said the U.S. military had seen Chinese activity around
Scarborough Shoal in the northern part of the Spratly archipelago,
about 125 miles (200 km) west of the Philippine base of Subic Bay.
"I think we see some surface ship activity and those sorts of
things, survey type of activity, going on. That's an area of concern
... a next possible area of reclamation," he said.
Richardson said it was unclear if the activity near the reef, which
China seized in 2012, was related to the pending arbitration
decision.
Asked about Richardson's statement, Lu Kang, a spokesman for China's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said it was hypocritical for the United
States to criticize China for militarizing the region when it
carries out its own naval patrols there.
"This is really laughable and preposterous," he said.
 The Philippine foreign ministry said it had yet to receive a report
about Chinese activity in Scarborough Shoal.
A Philippine military official who declined to be identified because
he is not authorized to speak to the media said he was unaware of a
Chinese survey ship in the area.
"China already has de facto control over the shoal since 2012 and
they always have two to three coastguard ships there. We are also
monitoring their activities and movements," the official told
reporters.
Richardson said China's pursuit of South China Sea territory, which
has included massive land reclamation to create artificial islands
elsewhere in the Spratlys, threatened to reverse decades of open
access and introduce new "rules" that required countries to obtain
permission before transiting those waters.
He said that was a worry given that 30 percent of the world's trade
passes through the region.
Asked whether China could respond to the ruling by the court of
arbitration in The Hague by declaring an air defense identification
zone, or ADIZ, as it did to the north, in the East China Sea, in
2013, Richardson said: "It's definitely a concern.
"We will just have to see what happens," he said. "We think about
contingencies and ... responses."
Richardson said the United States planned to continue carrying out
freedom-of-navigation exercises within 12 nautical miles of disputed
South China Sea geographical features to underscore its concerns
about keeping sea lanes open.
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JOINT PATROLS?
The United States responded to the East China Sea ADIZ by flying
B-52 bombers through the zone in a show of force in November 2013.
Richardson said he was struck by how China's increasing
militarization of the South China Sea had increased the willingness
of other countries in the region to work together.
India and Japan have joined the U.S. Navy in the Malabar naval
exercise since 2014, and were due to take part again this year in an
even more complex exercise that will take place in an area close to
the East and South China Seas.
South Korea, Japan and the United States were also working together
more closely than ever before, he said.
Richardson said the United States would welcome the participation of
other countries in joint patrols in the South China Sea, but those
decisions needed to be made by the countries in question.
He said the U.S. military saw good opportunities to build and
rebuild relationships with countries such as Vietnam, the
Philippines and India, which have all realized the importance of
safeguarding the freedom of the seas.
He cited India's recent hosting of an international fleet review
that included 75 ships from 50 navies, and said the United States
was exploring opportunities to increase its use of ports in the
Philippines and Vietnam, among others - including the former U.S.
naval base at Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay.
But he said Washington needed to proceed judiciously rather than
charging in "very fast and very heavy," given the enormous influence
and importance of the Chinese economy in the region.
"We have to be sophisticated in how we approach this so that we
don't force any of our partners into an uncomfortable position where
they have to make tradeoffs that are not in their best interest," he
said.
"We would hope to have an approach that would ... include us a
primary partner but not necessarily to the exclusion of other
partners in the region."
(Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in Manila and Megha
Rajagopalan in Beijing; Editing by Peter Cooney and Nick Macfie)
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