US destroyer passes disputed China islands

The BBC has an article (with its usual non-downloadable video, top) about us and the Chinese:

A Navy ship has sailed close to artificial islands built by China in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, US defense officials have said. Guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen breached the twelve-nautical mile zone China claims around Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly archipelago (see map).
The freedom of navigation operation represents a serious challenge to China's territorial claims. The foreign ministry in Beijing condemned it as "illegal". In a statement, ministry spokesman Lu Kang described the operation as a "threat to China's sovereignty", adding that Beijing would "resolutely respond to any country's deliberately provocative actions".
Defense Department spokesman Commander Bill Urban said that "the United States is conducting routine operations in the South China Sea in accordance with international law".
China claims most of the South and East China seas. Other countries in South East Asia have competing claims for the Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands, and Scarborough Shoal, which are thought to have resource-rich waters around them.

The reefs (photo, above), which were submerged, were turned into islands by China by a massive dredging project which began in late 2013.
China says this work is legal and, in a meeting with President Barack Obama last month in Washington, President Xi Jinping said China had "no intention to militarize" the islands. But Washington believes Beijing is constructing military facilities, designed to reinforce its disputed claim to most of the region, a major shipping zone.
The Freedom of Navigation program challenges what it deems to be "excessive claims" to the world's oceans and airspace. It was developed to promote international adherence to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, even though the US has not formally ratified the treaty.
In 2013 and 2014, the US conducted Freedom of Navigation operations of different kinds against China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam, each of whom occupies territory in the South China Sea.

Why is the South China Sea contentious?International maritime law allows countries to claim ownership of the twelve-nautical mile area surrounding natural islands, but does not allow nations to claim ownership of submerged features that have been raised by human intervention.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter had previously signaled plans for the sail-by, saying the US would "fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows".
A senior US defense official told Reuters the warship began its mission near the reefs, and would spend several hours there.
The USS Lassen was expected to be accompanied by a Navy P-8A surveillance plane and a P-3 surveillance plane, according to the unnamed official, speaking to US media.
Additional patrols could follow in the coming weeks, the official added.

USS Lassen
The ship (photo, above) is an Arleigh Burke-class missile destroyer, which the Navy says is among the most powerful destroyers ever built.
It is five hundred feet long, with a displacement of nine thousand tons fully loaded, and crewed by about three hundred.
It carries two Seahawk helicopters and uses the Aegis defense system.
Weapons include Tomahawk missiles, RUM-139 anti-submarine missiles, and surface-to-air missiles.

Rico says that the Spratlys showed up as the destination for the gold in his novel, At All Hazards, available on Amazon. but China knows it would get its ass 'resolutely' kicked in any naval showdown with the US.