China has dispatched ships and planes to track the US guided-missile destroyer John S. McCain as it passed near Chinese-held islands in the South China Sea. The People’s Liberation Army accused the US warship of trespassing into Chinese territorial waters on Friday near the Paracel Islands – called Xisha by China – during the latest freedom of navigation missions by the US Navy aimed at defying China’s vast claims in the strategic waterway. Spokesperson for the PLA’s Southern Theater Command Col. Zhang Nandong said Beijing demanded that the US end such actions, calling them “blatant navigation hegemony and military provocation” that “seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security interests, and gravely jeopardized peace and stability in the South China Sea.”

China protests latest US Navy mission in SCS. (2020, October 11). The Philippine Star, p. 11.