US slams China’s ‘destabilising’ South China Sea military flights | Al Jazeera

The US military has said that Chinese military flights in the past week in the South China Sea “at no time” posed any threat to a US Navy aircraft carrier strike group in the region, but fit a pattern of destabilising and aggressive behaviour by Beijing.

“The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group closely monitored all People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and Air Force (PLAAF) activity, and at no time did they pose a threat to US Navy ships, aircraft, or sailors,” the US military’s Pacific Command said in a statement.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Chinese aircraft did not come within 250 nautical miles (463km) of the US Navy vessels.

China claims almost all the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, where it has established military outposts on artificial islands. That claim has been declared as without legal basis by the International Court of Arbitration at The Hague.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to parts of the sea...