bEIJING: China\u2019s military said on Wednesday it monitored and \u201cdrove away\u201d a US destroyer that sailed near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the busy waterway of the South China Sea, while the US Navy said its action was in line with international law.<\/p>\n
The first known US military operation in at least six years within the shoal\u2019s waters came a day after the Philippines accused Chinese vessels of \u201cdangerous maneuvers and unlawful interference\u201d during a supply mission around the atoll.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the Chinese military\u2019s Southern Theatre Command said the USS Higgins had entered the waters \u201cwithout approval of the Chinese government\u201d on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe US move seriously violated China\u2019s sovereignty and security, severely undermined peace and stability in the South China Sea,\u201d it added, vowing to keep a \u201chigh alert at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US Navy\u2019s Seventh Fleet said the Higgins had \u201casserted navigational rights and freedoms\u201d near the Scarborough Shoal \u201cconsistent with international law.\u201d<\/p>\n
The operation reflected the US commitment to uphold freedom of navigation and lawful uses of the sea, it told Reuters in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, despite overlapping claims by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.<\/p>\n
The US regularly carries out \u201cfreedom of navigation\u201d operations in the South China Sea, challenging what it says are curbs on innocent passage imposed by China and other claimants.<\/p>\n
The Scarborough Shoal has been a major source of tension in the strategic South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.<\/p>\n
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 in the area.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s coast guard said it had taken \u201cnecessary measures\u201d to expel Philippine vessels from the waters.<\/p>\n
In 2016, an international arbitral tribunal ruled there was no basis in international law for Beijing\u2019s claims, based on its historic maps. China does not recognize that decision, however.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
bEIJING: China\u2019s military said on Wednesday it monitored and \u201cdrove away\u201d a US destroyer that sailed near the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the busy waterway of the South China Sea, while the US Navy said its action was in line with international law. The first known US military operation in at least six years within …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":85318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85319,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85317\/revisions\/85319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}