The US Navy regularly conducts “freedom of navigation” operations in the disputed South China Sea, to which Taiwan, China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei have competing claims over all or parts of the waterway. “Recently, the US has used the pretext of ‘freedom of navigation’ to frequently send warships to the South China Sea area to cause trouble,” it said. China has laid claim to nearly all of the South China Sea and has built numerous military outposts on the small islands and atolls of the region, angering other claimants. In the past few months, the US military has stepped up its freedom of navigation operations in the region, irking Beijing, but not sparking any direct confrontation thus far. China has effectively drawn a property line around the whole of the Paracels archipelago to claim the entire territory.
