China’s military said on Tuesday that it deployed forces to monitor a US warship after it illegally entered the waters around a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. Further north in the same waterway, Taiwan reported a face-to-face encounter with a Chinese vessel.
The British news agency Reuters reported the developments.Although Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam also claim parts of the area, China regards nearly the entire South China Sea as its own territory. Recent tensions have been highest between Beijing and Manila.
China’s Southern Theater Command stated that early Tuesday morning the USS Charleston entered the waters adjacent to Sabina Shoal in the Spratly Islands without Chinese government approval, describing the move as illegal.
In a statement, the command said the US action violated China’s sovereign rights and interests, endangered maritime security, and harmed regional peace and stability. It called on the US to immediately stop such activities and confirmed that China had sent naval forces to track and monitor the ship’s movements.
The US Navy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Such operations are typically described by the US as freedom of navigation operations, though its last publicly known operation of this type in the South China Sea was more than a year earlier.
A Philippine military spokesperson said the US ship had not entered Chinese territory. He added that no country has the right to demand prior permission for lawful passage in international waters.
Last month, the Philippine Coast Guard reported that a Chinese Coast Guard vessel rammed a Philippine naval ship conducting a fuel-resupply mission near the same shoal. China blamed the Philippines for the collision. Both the Philippines (which has a mutual defense treaty with the United States) and China claim sovereignty over Sabina Shoal and the entire Spratly Islands.
In a separate incident on Tuesday at the northern end of the South China Sea, Taiwan’s Coast Guard said a Chinese Coast Guard ship entered prohibited waters near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands. Taiwan’s Coast Guard dispatched its vessel Taichung to warn and drive the Chinese ship away. Both sides broadcast messages to each other.
China considers democratically governed Taiwan to be its own territory. On Tuesday, at a forum in Taipei, the chair of a US Congress-appointed review commission described Chinese Coast Guard patrols east of Taiwan as highly destabilizing.
At the same event, Taiwan’s National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu said China has no legal claim over the waters east of the island.