China accuses US of undermining regional peace

China People's Liberation Army lashed out at the United States on Thursday as the American destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur passed through the Taiwan Strait, Sputnik news agency has reported.

The spokesman for the Chinese military has accused Americans in a statement of undermining the regional “peace and stability” as the US Navy was carrying out that it described as “routine transit".

On 22 January, China passed a law empowering its navy to use force against foreign vessels in the waters that it considers its sovereign, which includes parts of East China Sea under Japan's sovereignty claims. The United States is strongly opposed to China's increased military presence in the disputed waters, considering it a strategic threat to itself and its regional allies.

Beijing says the South China Sea is its sovereign territory and has built military bases on artificially created islands. The United States views the South China Sea as an international waterway and sends warships to routinely patrol the waterways in so-called freedom of navigation exercises.

KI/PR