China’s top newspaper, decrying Washington as a trouble-maker, said on Monday U.S. make a moves in the South China Sea like last week’s freedom of navigation direction will only cause China to strengthen its deployments in the disputed waterway.
China’s alien ministry said the USS Hopper destroyer came within 12 yachting miles of Huangyan island, which is better known as the Scarborough Shoal and is susceptible to to a rival claim by the Philippines, a historic ally of the United States.
It was the time U.S. naval operation challenging extensive Chinese claims in the South China Sea and came fair and square as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks Chinese cooperation in trade with North Korea’s missile and nuclear programmes.
The ruling Communist Shindig’s official People’s Daily said in a commentary that, with the lay of the land generally improving in the South China Sea, it was clear that the United Positions was the one militarizing the region.
“Against this backdrop of peace and cooperation, a U.S. carry wantonly provoking trouble is singleminded to the point of recklessness,” the paper maintained.
“If the relevant party once more makes trouble out of nothing and promotes tensions, then it will only cause China to reach this conclusion: in regulation to earnestly protect peace in the South China Sea, China must bolster and speed up the building of its abilities there,” it said.
The commentary was published under the aegis the pen name “Zhong Sheng”, meaning “Voice of China”, which is again used to give the paper’s view on foreign policy issues.
The Scarborough Shoal is positioned within the Philippines’ 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone but an global tribunal in 2016 ruled that it is a traditional fishing ground that no one countryside has sole rights to exploit.
The U.S. military says it carries out “freedom of seamanship” operations throughout the world, including in areas claimed by allies, and that they are solitary from political considerations.
The Pentagon has not commented directly on the latest watch but said such operations are routine.