Beijing:China on Tuesday accused the U.S. of a “lack of transparency and responsibility” regarding an accident in the South China Sea involving a Navy submarine last month.
At a daily briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the U.S. should provide full details of the incident that has revived the dispute between the two countries over the strategic waterway.
“We once again urge the U.S. to give a detailed account of the accident,” he said.
Wang described what he called a “lack of transparency and responsibility” by the U.S. in following up with the incident.
He said the U.S. has so far failed to offer “a clear explanation" of what the Navy nuclear submarine was doing in the area, as well as “the specific location of the accident, whether it was in another country's exclusive economic zone or even territorial waters, whether it caused a nuclear leak or damaged marine environment.” China claims sovereignty over virtually the entire marine area, through which trillions of dollars of international trade pass each year. Six governments in all claim islands, atolls and exclusive economic zones in the sea, while the U.S. insists that freedom of navigation be maintained, reinforcing that with regular military flights and Naval patrols and training missions around the region.