China on Monday condemned the “illegal” intrusion of a US warship into waters it claims in the South China Sea, after the US Navy said the guided-missile destroyer USS Milius had sailed in the area.
“The USS Milius missile destroyer illegally entered waters adjacent to Meiji Reef in China’s Nansha Islands without Chinese government approval,” Tian Junli, spokesman for the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command, said in a statement. The Chinese Air Force “followed and monitored the ship,” he added.
The United States announced Monday that a missile destroyer was sailing through the area amid escalating tensions over high-intensity Chinese military maneuvers around Taiwan.
According to a statement released by the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Milius is sailing “close” to the Spratly Islands, which China disputes with the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei, in a defense exercise. of “freedom of navigation consistent with international law”.
In particular, the text adds that the ship carries out “normal operations” in the twelve nautical miles (the limit established by the UN to designate the sovereignty of a state in maritime territories) of the Mischief reef, in the Spratly, which China has occupied and which is disputed by Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam.
“Illegitimate claims in the South China Sea pose a serious threat to freedom of navigation,” the US statement added, in a veiled reference to Beijing.
The shipment of the US destroyer occurs amid an escalation of tensions between China and the US, with Beijing ending wide-ranging military exercises around Taiwan on Monday in retaliation for the meeting last Wednesday in California (USA) between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy.
A total of 59 planes and eleven military ships from China made incursions this Monday morning in areas around Taiwan during the maneuvers carried out by the Chinese Army in areas near the island, the official CNA agency reported.
Likewise, Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing does not rule out invading, and the South China Sea, rich in natural resources and that China claims almost in its entirety, have been the objective of the United States in its recent agreement with the Philippines to expand a defense agreement. which allows its troops to operate from four new military bases in the Asian archipelago.
Philippine authorities revealed a week ago the locations of those new bases, including two within 400 kilometers of Taiwan and another facing the disputed South China Sea.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
