China has slammed the US for sailing a warship near disputed territory in the South China Sea. In a statement on its website late yesterday, the country’s defence ministry said the move is a serious illegal act and deliberately provocative.
A US ship entered Chinese territorial waters yesterday near the Paracel Islands, known as Xisha in Chinese. China controls all of the islands, which are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.
In a separate statement, the foreign ministry said the action had seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security interests.
Friday’s operation is the first since a tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in July ruled there is no legal basis to China’s claims to nearly all of the sea which Beijing dismissed.
Several other nations across the region including the Philippines and Vietnam have rival claims to various parts of the South China