China Calls on US to Stop Provocations in South China Sea

China’s Foreign Ministry called on the US to stop dangerous and provocative actions in the South China Sea.

This came in a statement by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning in a press briefing on Wednesday, where she indicated that the United States has long been using planes atop its ships to carry out reconnaissance activities against China, which causes serious damage to China's security and sovereignty.

On Tuesday, the US Indo-Pacific Command said a Chinese Air Force J-16 fighter jet made an "unnecessarily aggressive exercise" in front of a US RC-134 strategic reconnaissance aircraft while it was flying over the South China Sea on May 26.

It is reported that Beijing has, for decades, been arguing with a number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region over the territorial ownership of a number of islands in the South China Sea, where large reserves of hydrocarbons have been discovered.

The conflicts are about the Xisha Archipelago (Paracel Islands), the Spratly Islands (Nansha), and one of these islands is Pag-Asa Island (Tito) and Huangyan (Scarborough Reef), while Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines are involved to varying degrees in this conflict.

The situation in this region is often complicated by the passage of US warships, which, according to the Chinese foreign ministry, violate international law and undermine China's sovereignty and security.

Despite Beijing's protests, Washington officially declared that the US would "float and fly" wherever international law permitted.