The Chinese military claimed that it drove out a US ship that made an incursion into waters near the Spratly Islands in the contested South China Sea. The move comes as Beijing is taking more assertive actions in the long-disputed waters it claims as its own.
The spokesman for China’s People’s Liberation Army Southern Theater Command, Tian Junli, said that the USS Chancellorsville’s incursion into the waters near the islands breached China’s “sovereignty and security.” Tian went on to accuse the United States of posing a risk to security in the body of water, describing the transit by the USS Chancellorsville as another indication of “its hegemony in the navigation and militarization of the South China Sea.”
In a post on its WeChat platform, the Southern Theater Command said that Chinese troops would remain on “high alert.”
China claims the majority of the South China Sea as its territory including the Taiwan Strait, angering the neighboring countries including Taiwan, who also have overlapping claims to the body of water. An international tribunal back in 2016 ruled against China, saying that its claims have no legal basis under international law.
Beijing has rejected the ruling and has continued to assert its claims of sovereignty over the body of water, building artificial islands which include seven outposts in the Spratlys.
The United States has also rejected China’s sovereignty claims in the South China Sea and has since sent several warships into the region in recent years as part of its “freedom of navigation” exercises.
This follows the visit of US Vice President Kamala Harris to the Philippine island of Palawan last week. Harris stressed continued US support for the Philippines amidst intimidation and coercion by China in the South China Sea. In her remarks aboard a Philippine coast guard ship, Harris said the US and the international community “have a profound stake in the future of the region.”
“We must stand up for principles such as respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, unimpeded lawful commerce, the peaceful resolution of disputes, and the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, and throughout the Indo-Pacific,” said Harris in her remarks.