Move FM Global News

TAIPEI, Taiwan: As part of a freedom of navigation mission, a US Navy destroyer sailed near a man-made Chinese controlled island in the South China Sea this week.

Beijing, which has been staging military drills around Taiwan, denounced the US sailing as illegal.

The US frequently conducts similar operations to challenge China and other states’ territorial claims in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway in the region.

The US Navy’s 7th Fleet said the USS Milius engaged in “normal operations” within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, where China has built a military airport and other facilities on a previously submerged reef.

“Under customary international law, features like Mischief Reef that are submerged at high tide in their naturally formed state are not entitled to a territorial sea,” said the US 7th Fleet, in a statement.

However, China’s People’s Liberation Army responded, “The US ship had illegally entered waters near the reef without Chinese approval, and its forces had monitored the vessel and warned it.”

“China has indisputable sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and the surrounding maritime area,” its Southern Theatre Command said.

At the end of the operation, the 7th Fleet said the Milius exited the “excessive claim area” and continued operations in the South China Sea.

China, as well as Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, claim large areas of the South China Sea, through which trillions of dollars in trade sail annually.