Missile Destroyer USS Benfold 'evicted' Near China's Paracel Islands: Facts Once Again Show US Security Risk Maker

JAKARTA - China was furious and took decisive steps to "repel" a US missile destroyer as it sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on Wednesday.

The United States is again showing its resolve around the so-called Paracel Islands as an international shipping lane, again carrying out a 'Freedom of Navigation Operation' in the South China Sea challenging what it says are peaceful passage restrictions imposed by China and other claimants.

The missile destroyer in question is the USS Benfold (DDG-65), which the US Navy called for "asserting the rights of navigation and freedom in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands, consistent with international law".

China says it does not impede freedom of navigation or overflight, but says the United States is deliberately provoking tensions.

The People's Liberation Army Southern Theater Command said the US vessel's actions grossly violated China's sovereignty and security by illegally entering China's territorial waters around the Paracels, which are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.

"The PLA Southern Theater Command organized the navy and air force to follow, monitor, warn and repel" the ship, the command explained, showing an image of the Benfold taken from the deck of the Chinese frigate Xianning, xi reported July 13.

"The facts show once again that the United States is nothing but a 'security risk maker in the South China Sea' and a 'destroyer of regional peace and stability", the command continued.

The US Navy said China's statement about the mission was 'false' and the latest in a long series of Chinese actions to "misrepresent legitimate US maritime operations and assert its exaggerated and illegitimate maritime claims, at the expense of its Southeast Asian neighbors."

The United States defends every nation's right to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, and nothing China "says otherwise will stand in our way", he added.

It is known that China took control of the Paracel Islands from the then South Vietnamese government in 1974.

Last Monday marks the sixth anniversary of an international tribunal's decision to overturn China's claims to the South China Sea, through which about $3 trillion in ships trade each year.

China never accepted that decision. Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea. Meanwhile, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei all have to compete and often overlap claims.

To back up its claims, China has built artificial islands in several areas of the South China Sea, including airports, raising regional concerns about Beijing's intentions.