China scolds USA for South China Sea ‘provocation’

China is “strongly discontented with and firmly against” the move, he said.

The sail-past fits a USA policy of pushing back against China’s growing assertiveness in South China Sea. “Why would you not confirm or deny that that happened?”

“You messed up in Iraq and Syria”, the post said, “Now what do you want to do in our waters?”

Nevertheless, if the two governments are unwilling or unable to reach a few type of agreement on this issue, tensions could increase as a result of more frequent naval and air encounters, thus increasing the chance of an incident that could escalate into a serious political-military crisis, China expert Swaine underlined.

Given the high stakes and heightened rhetoric, many fear Beijing may take more provocative action.

In fact, Carter was simply following White House orders, administration officials said.

A senior USA defence official told Reuters news agency the warship began its mission early on Tuesday local time near the reefs and would spend several hours there.

China’s regime of island-building and increasing assertiveness in the region is seen as part of its long-term play to challenge the United States and its regional supremacy.

This USA transit on the disputed waters by China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam was considered by Beijing as a breach of Chinese sovereignty.

US Navy warship USS Lassen sailed near the disputed waters in South China Sea.

Much of China’s public statements on Tuesday repeated previous standard language around its assertion of rights and sovereignty over the South China Sea.

China’s foreign ministry summoned the USA ambassador to protest, and said the nation would do “whatever is necessary to oppose deliberate provocation from any country”.

The Spratly archipelago is closer to the Philippines than to China.

Pentagon spokesmen said the destroyer had sailed past Mischief Reef and Subi Reef, which were recently partially submerged reefs, but have been built into islands since a year ago in a major construction drive by China.

Beijing’s response mirrored its actions in May when a navy dispatcher warned off a US Navy P8-A Poseidon surveillance aircraft as it flew over Fiery Cross Reef, where China has conducted extensive reclamation work.

President Xi Jinping and USA counterpart Barack Obama are expected to attend a series of Asia-Pacific summits in the second half of next month. Officials had said before the Lassen’s mission that one objective of such a patrol would be to test Xi’s words. But satellite images of the islands published by the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and global Studies show that Beijing has reclaimed millions of square metres of land in the Spratlys, known as Nansha in Chinese.

The patrol came within the internationally accepted limit of a nation’s territorial claim, according to the US.

At the foreign ministry on Tuesday, Lu, the spokesman, said that China had sovereignty over the Spratly chain and hence claimed the 12-nautical-mile zone.

China has made threats in the past to anyone challenging its claims.