Beijing has strongly criticized the sailing of a US Navy warship close to its manmade islands in the South China Sea, saying the move posed a “threat to China’s sovereignty”.
Foreign ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said on Tuesday the USS Lassen, a guided missile destroyer, entered the waters near the islands “illegally” and “without receiving permission from the Chinese government”, Al Jazeera reported.
The patrol by the USS Lassen was the most significant US challenge yet to a 22-nautical-kilometer zone China asserts around the Spratly archipelago, a disputed group of hundreds of reefs, islets, atolls and islands in the South China.
In an angry response, officials in Beijing said China will resolutely respond to any country’s deliberate provocations.
“China strongly urges the US side to conscientiously handle China’s serious representations, immediately correct its mistake and not take any dangerous or provocative acts that threaten China’s sovereignty and security interests,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
