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Beijing: An American warship illegally entered the South China Sea
A spokesman for China’s Southern Theater Command added in a statement, ” The United States is seriously undermining regional peace and stability.”
China is locked in a dispute with a number of its neighbors over its wide-ranging claims in the South China Sea. In the past few months, it has engaged in several confrontations with Philippine ships, and has also protested against US ship patrols in the disputed areas.
It claims almost the entire South China Sea, a corridor with annual commercial shipping traffic estimated at more than $3 trillion, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. The Permanent Court of Arbitration said in 2016 that China’s claims had “no legal basis.”
Mutual accusations
Last November 26, China and the United States exchanged accusations over the South China Sea, after the Chinese army said it had removed an American warship, which the US Navy said was conducting a routine freedom of navigation operation.
A post on the official account of the Southern Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army on the WeChat social media application said that the Chinese army deployed its naval and air forces to “track, monitor and warn” the American destroyer.
The US Navy said that Hopper “demonstrated navigation rights in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands consistent with international law.”
Earlier last month, the US State Department said that the two countries held talks on maritime matters, including the disputed South China Sea, and that the American side stressed its concerns about China’s “dangerous and illegal” actions there.
AFP
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