China's military said it had driven a U.S. warship from waters it claims in the
South China Sea at the weekend and accused the United States of being the
"biggest destroyer" of peace and stability in the region.
The incident highlighted the tensions in the flashpoint region and was the first such
confrontation since Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden met on the
sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in San Francisco earlier this month and reported progress
on some of the issues that have strained ties between the global rivals.
China's state-run People's Daily quoted Senior Colonel Tian Junli, spokesman for the People's
Liberation Army's Southern Theater Command, as saying the guided-missile destroyer USS
Hopper had entered China's territorial waters illegally on Saturday. It said the incident occurred
near the Paracel Islands, which China calls the Xisha Islands.
"The theater command has organized air and naval forces to follow and monitor it, and drove
it away according to law," he was quoted as saying.
Tian sharply criticized the United States, labeling the action a "serious violation" of China's
sovereignty and security. Tian described the United States as a "security risk maker in the
South China Sea" and the "biggest destroyer" of peace and stability in the region. He said
troops in the region would remain on high alert.
China's claims over almost the entirety of the South China Sea have long been a
point of contention, bringing it into confrontation not only with the United States but
also with other regional claimants, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia,
Malaysia, and Brunei. Beijing has consistently rejected the 2016 ruling by The
Permanent Court of Arbitration, which stated that China's claims in the South China
Sea have no legal basis.
The Hopper had "asserted navigational rights in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands, consistent with international law," according to the U.S. Navy, cited by Reuters.
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