China hit back yesterday at United States criticism that it restricts navigation and overflights in the South China Sea amid a festering marine territorial dispute with some of its neighbors. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei have overlapping claims. Freedom of overflights and navigation doesn't mean allowing foreign warships and military jets to violate other countries' sovereignty and security, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement of Reiters, after US Secretary of State John Kerry accused China of restricting such movements in the region last week.

China hits back at US criticism over sea 'restrictions'. (2015, August 11). Philippine Star, p. 5.