on Saturday accused the US of trespassing its territorial waters and warned taking "necessary measures" to firmly safeguard its sovereignty after an American missile destroyer sailed close to a shoal in the disputed South Sea to assert freedom of navigation. China has accused the United States of sending a warship without permission into what it said was its territorial waters in the disputed South China Sea, adding that it would take “necessary measures” to “safeguard its sovereignty.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Saturday that the U.S. Navy’s USS Hopper guided-missile destroyer had sailed within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of what is known as Scarborough Shoal, a group of disputed islets that Beijing calls Huangyan Island, on Wednesday night. is also known as Scarborough Shoal, the ring of reefs which lies about 230 kilometres from the Philippines in the South Sea (SCS), where Beijing's claims are hotly contested by other nations. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)

Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said a Chinese missile frigate moved to identify and verify the U.S. vessel and warned it to leave the area. “We hope that the United States will respect China’s sovereignty, respect the efforts made by the countries within the region, and not cause trouble out of nothing or make waves,” Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said in a statement, adding that China would intensify its patrols in the air and at sea. Beijing claims virtually the entire South China Sea, and has built up a series of man-made outposts in what the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank has said is a bid to create “fully functioning air and naval bases.”

The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the waters. Asked to confirm the patrol, the Pentagon said U.S. forces “operate in the Indo-Pacific region on a daily basis, including in the South China Sea.”

“All operations are conducted in accordance with international law and demonstrate that the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Logan said.
China claims its sovereignty was violated when a United States Navy ship sailed close to the Scarborough Shoal near the Philippines.