Tensions over the disputed South China Sea have been reignited after Beijing said its military had driven away a US warship that had entered its territorial waters without permission.
Washington has insisted the naval destroyer USS Hopper was on a routine freedom of navigation patrol.
According to a post on the official WeChat social media account of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the military deployed naval and air forces to “track, monitor and warn away” the American vessel.
But in response, the US Navy said the ship had “asserted navigational rights in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands, consistent with international law”.
Beijing lays claim to nearly the entire South China Sea, which provides a route to more than £2.4trn of seaborne trade a year, including parts over which the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei assert rights.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 said China’s wide-reaching claim had no legal basis.
The Philippines and Australia began their first joint sea and air patrols in the sea on Saturday, days after Beijing accused Manila of enlisting foreign forces to patrol the South China Sea – a reference to joint operations with the US military.
Two Chinese fighter jets were monitored “orbiting” a Philippine aircraft participating in the patrols but did not cause a problem, Manila said.
Philippine military chief Romeo Brawner said the nation was well within its rights to conduct joint patrols with allies to promote the “rule-based international order”.
