Chinese military on Tuesday claimed to have “expelled” a US Navy destroyer that had sailed into the disputed South China Sea (SCS).
China also claims that all of the 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea belongs to Beijing. To assert this claim further, the Chinese Communist Party has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region which are also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
However, the US Navy spokesperson has said that the claims made by the Chinese Military are completely false.
“The PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) statement about this mission is false. USS John S. McCain was not ‘expelled’ from any nation’s territory,” Lieutenant Joe Keiley, US Navy’s 7th Fleet spokesperson, said in a statement.
US Navy ships generally through the South China Sea to challenge the claim by proclaiming the freedom of navigation in the area.
On Tuesday, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command said that the US destroyer USS John S McCain "trespassed into waters near China's Nansha Islands (Spratly Islands), without the authorisation of the Chinese government".
"The PLA Southern Theatre Command organised naval and aerial forces and warned and expelled it," Senior Colonel Tian Junli, a spokesperson for the southern command, said in a statement.
The China Military Online--the official Chinese military website said that the US warship trespassed just a day after Beijing sent its second aircraft carrier – Shandong – entered the South China Sea for exercise.
The PLA has again demonstrated its control over the region and ability to safeguard national sovereignty and security, the website quoted an analyst.
The push from the US over the ‘freedom of navigation’ operation over China’s claim of the South China Sea has recently accelerated as Donald Trump’s tenure as President is coming towards an end. The US navy ships have become a routine sight at the South China Sea since 2017.
