Following the reports that the United States was considering ramping up its military presence in disputed South China Sea waters and confronting Chinese territorial claims with ships and aircrafts, Beijing expressed anger Wednesday.
Citing officials, the Wall Street Journal reported Defense Secretary Ash Carter to have asked staff to explore sending Navy surveillance aircraft and vessels to islands which Washington believes have been rapidly built up by China in recent months.
In a regular briefing in Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said: “We are severeky concerned by relevant remarks made by the American side,”
“Freedom of navigation does not mean that the military vessels or aircraft of a foreign country can willfully enter the territorial waters or airspace of another country.”, she added.
China has provoke alarm due to the increasingly bold actions claiming nearly all of the South China Sea, even waters approaching the coasts of its Asian neighbors.
Earlier, the US accused China of building up to 800 hectares of artificial islands in Spratlys, an archipelago of more than a hundred islands, reefs and atolls between Vietnam and Philippines.
US said China could construct airfields, surveillance systems and harbors that would jeopardize regional stability.
However, as reported in the WSJ, the US has not set ships and aircraft within 12 nautical miles of the reclaimed reefs in order to avoid escalating tensions.
H/T: Inquirer.net; and photo