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BEIJING (Reuters) -The Chinese military said on Wednesday it monitored and “drove away” a U.S. destroyer that sailed near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, while the U.S. Navy said its action was in line with international law.
The first known U.S. military operation in at least six years within the shoal’s waters came a day after the Philippines accused Chinese vessels of “dangerous manoeuvres and unlawful interference” during a supply mission around the atoll.
In a statement, the Chinese military’s Southern Theatre Command said the USS Higgins had entered the waters “without approval of the Chinese government” on Wednesday.
“The U.S. move seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security, severely undermined peace and stability in the South China Sea,” it added, vowing to maintain a “high alert at all times”.
In response, the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet said “China’s statement about this mission is false”, adding that the Higgins had “asserted navigational rights and freedoms” near the Scarborough Shoal “consistent with international law”.
The operation reflected the U.S. commitment to uphold freedom of navigation and lawful uses of the sea, the Seventh Fleet told Reuters in an emailed statement.
“The United States is defending its right to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, as USS Higgins did here. Nothing China says otherwise will deter us.”
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, overlapping the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Unresolved disputes have festered for years over ownership of various islands and features.
The U.S. regularly carries out “freedom of navigation” operations in the South China Sea, challenging what it says are curbs on innocent passage imposed by China and other claimants.
The Scarborough Shoal has been a major source of tension in what is a strategic conduit for more than trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.
The actions of Chinese vessels in the shoal this week also resulted in a collision of two of them, Manila said, the first such known incident in the area.
On Wednesday, the Philippine coast guard said the objective of the two Chinese vessels had been to “completely block” it from getting near Scarborough Shoal.
Global Times, a Chinese state media outlet, reported on Wednesday that a Philippine coast guard ship had “conducted highly dangerous manoeuvres on Chinese law enforcement vessels” near the Scarborough Shoal on Monday, citing videos it obtained from an unidentified source.
Neither the report nor the video clips published by Global Times showed the collision between Chinese vessels.
On Monday, China’s coast guard said it had taken “necessary measures” to expel Philippine vessels from the waters.
In 2016, an international arbitral tribunal ruled there was no basis in international law for Beijing’s claims, based on its historic maps. China does not recognise that decision, however.
(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom, Ben Blanchard in Taipei; additional reporting by Karen Lema in Manila; editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Clarence Fernandez and Mark Heinrich)
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