US Navy destroyer again enters China’s territorial waters as row escalates

US Navy destroyer again enters China’s territorial waters as row escalates

China’s Ministry of National Defence says it has continued to watch the US Navy destroyer USS Milius in a second straight day of a stand-off between the 2 tremendous powers.

The US Navy's 7th Fleet says that the USS Milius is conducting routine operations in international waters.
The US Navy’s seventh Fleet says that the USS Milius is conducting routine operations in worldwide waters.
(Reuters Archive)

China’s defence ministry has mentioned that it but once more needed to monitor and drive away
the US Navy destroyer USS Milius that entered its territorial
waters within the South China Sea close to the Paracel Islands.

“We sternly demand the US to instantly cease such
provocative acts, in any other case it should bear the intense
penalties of unexpected incidents,” a spokesperson mentioned on Friday in a
assertion from the Ministry of National Defence.

The US Navy mentioned the guided-missile destroyer was
asserting its navigational rights and freedoms.

“Unlawful and sweeping maritime claims within the South China
Sea pose a critical risk to the liberty of the seas, together with
the freedoms of navigation and overflight, free commerce and
unimpeded commerce, and freedom of financial alternative for
South China Sea littoral nations,” the US Navy seventh fleet mentioned
in an emailed assertion.

US forces function within the South China Sea every day,
the US Navy mentioned.

It was the second straight day of a stand-off between the
two tremendous powers amid rising tensions within the South China Sea.

READ MORE:
US denies Chinese declare it drove away American ship within the South China Sea

Competing claims

On Thursday, Colonel Tian Junli, a spokesperson for China’s Southern Theatre Command, mentioned that the Chinese navy monitored and expelled the USS Milius after it “illegally entered China’s Xisha territorial waters (waters around the Paracel Islands) without approval from the Chinese government, undermining peace and stability in the South China Sea.”

The US Navy’s seventh Fleet mentioned that the USS Milius was not expelled and was conducting routine operations in worldwide waters. 

The incident comes amid rising tensions between China and the United States within the area, as Washington pushes again at Beijing’s growingly assertive posture within the South China Sea and elsewhere.

China claims possession over just about your entire strategic waterway, by way of which round $5 trillion in international commerce transits annually and which holds extremely worthwhile fish shares and undersea mineral assets.

The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan even have competing claims.

The US itself has no claims to the waters, however has deployed Navy and Air Force property to patrol the waterway for many years and says freedom of navigation and overflight is within the American nationwide curiosity.

China has ceaselessly accused the US of meddling in Asian affairs and demanding it leaves the area the place it has had a naval presence for greater than a century.

READ MORE:
Japan, Philippines eye additional defence cooperation to counter China

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