A US destroyer that had unlawfully entered the South China Sea waters near the Paracel Islands was chased away, according to China’s navy, which claimed to have done so on Thursday.
The military claimed in a statement that the guided-missile destroyer Milius unlawfully entered Chinese territorial waters without permission from the government, disrupting peace and stability in the busiest waterway.
According to Tian Junli, a spokeswoman for China’s Southern Theatre Command, “the theater forces will maintain a high state of readiness at all times and take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security as well as peace and stability in the South China Sea.”
Throughout the region, tension between the US and China has been rising.
In the Asia-Pacific, the United States has been strengthening its alliances seeking to counter China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, as Beijing seeks to advance its territorial claims.
