“What the U.S. is currently doing is called ‘innocent passage.’ Innocent passage refers to passage through a nation’s territorial waters by another nation’s military vessels within 12 nautical miles of the shore, taking only the minimum of action necessary and without causing any alarm or intimidation. The passage of military vessels is permitted so long as it is innocent passage. According to the statements by US Department of Defense, U.S. Navy vessels are making innocent passage. That is to say, their actions imply that they recognize the area as Chinese territorial waters, which has the opposite of the intended effect.”
I've made this point before.
Conducting "innocent passage" through the waters surrounding the artificial islands is worse than doing nothing at all.
Innocent passage, as a principal of international and maritime law, only applies to territorial waters of sovereign states. And international and maritime law does not, and has never, recognized that artificial islands are sovereign territory, with territorial waters.
But by conducting innocent passage, the US is de facto granting such status to the Chinese artificial islands.
As noted in the article, the US (and critically, its allies as well) must conduct actual operation in the waters to send the message that we do not recognize Chinese claims.
Such operations are not hostile acts, but merely the sort of operations that warships routinely conduct while at sea in international waters.
Will China object? Surely. But while deliberately provoking China isn't a good idea, ceding sovereignty of the waters to them is a far worse idea.
XBradTC 
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