Beijing on Saturday said it had dispatched a warship to drive away a US missile destroyer which had “violated” its sovereignty by sailing close to a shoal in the disputed South China Sea. The US vessel “violated China’s sovereignty and security interests”, and put the safety of nearby Chinese vessels “under grave threat”, foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said. China is a “strategic competitor using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbors while militarizing features in the South China Sea”, the document says. China’s defence ministry dismissed those claims on Saturday, saying “the situation in the South China Sea has steadily stabilised,” in comments attributed to spokesman Wu Qian. But it added, “the United States has repeatedly sent warships illegally into the adjacent waters of the South China Sea islands and reefs.”Beijing asserts sovereignty over almost all of the resource-rich South China Sea despite rival claims from Southeast Asian neighbours and has rapidly built reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes.

Source: The Guardian January 20, 2018 10:30 UTC