BEIJING July 6 (AP): China on Monday accused the US of flexing its military muscles in the South China Sea by conducting joint exercises with two US aircraft carrier groups in the strategic waterway.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the exercises were performed "totally out of ulterior motives” and undermined stability in the area.
"Against such a backdrop, the US deliberately dispatched massive forces to conduct large-scale military exercises in the relevant waters of the South China Sea to flex its military muscle," Zhao said at a daily briefing.
The US Navy said over the weekend that the USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Reagan along with their accompanying vessels and aircraft conducted exercises "designed to maximize air defence capabilities, and extend the reach of long-range precision maritime strikes from carrier-based aircraft in a rapidly evolving area of operations.”
China claims almost all of the South China Sea and routinely objects to any action by the U.S. military in the region. Five other governments - Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, The Philippines, Taiwan - claim all or part of the sea, through which approximately US $5 trillion in goods are shipped every year.
China has sought to shore up its claim to the sea by building military bases on coral atolls, leading the US to sail warships through the region in what it calls freedom of operation missions.
Washington does not officially take a stand on the rival territorial claims in the region, but is closely allied with several of the claimants and insists that the waters and the airspace above be free to all countries.
The US, however, confirmed that they have seen the Chinese ships during the drill.
"They have seen us and we have seen them," Rear Admiral James Kirk said in a telephone interview from the Nimitz with Reuters, which has been conducting flight drills in the waterway with the Seventh Fleet carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, that began on the US Independence Day holiday of July 4.
The Pentagon, when it announced the dual carrier exercise, said it wanted to "stand up for the right of all nations to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows", describing its 100,000-ton ships and the 90 or so aircraft they each carry as a "symbol of resolve".
About 12,000 sailors are on ships in the combined carrier strike groups.
Contacts with Chinese ships had been without incident, Kirk said.
"We have the expectation that we will always have interactions that are professional and safe," he said. "We are operating in some pretty congested waters, lots of maritime traffic of all sorts."
Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the exercises were performed "totally out of ulterior motives” and undermined stability in the area.
"Against such a backdrop, the US deliberately dispatched massive forces to conduct large-scale military exercises in the relevant waters of the South China Sea to flex its military muscle," Zhao said at a daily briefing.
The US Navy said over the weekend that the USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Reagan along with their accompanying vessels and aircraft conducted exercises "designed to maximize air defence capabilities, and extend the reach of long-range precision maritime strikes from carrier-based aircraft in a rapidly evolving area of operations.”
China claims almost all of the South China Sea and routinely objects to any action by the U.S. military in the region. Five other governments - Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, The Philippines, Taiwan - claim all or part of the sea, through which approximately US $5 trillion in goods are shipped every year.
China has sought to shore up its claim to the sea by building military bases on coral atolls, leading the US to sail warships through the region in what it calls freedom of operation missions.
Washington does not officially take a stand on the rival territorial claims in the region, but is closely allied with several of the claimants and insists that the waters and the airspace above be free to all countries.
The US, however, confirmed that they have seen the Chinese ships during the drill.
"They have seen us and we have seen them," Rear Admiral James Kirk said in a telephone interview from the Nimitz with Reuters, which has been conducting flight drills in the waterway with the Seventh Fleet carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, that began on the US Independence Day holiday of July 4.
The Pentagon, when it announced the dual carrier exercise, said it wanted to "stand up for the right of all nations to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows", describing its 100,000-ton ships and the 90 or so aircraft they each carry as a "symbol of resolve".
About 12,000 sailors are on ships in the combined carrier strike groups.
Contacts with Chinese ships had been without incident, Kirk said.
"We have the expectation that we will always have interactions that are professional and safe," he said. "We are operating in some pretty congested waters, lots of maritime traffic of all sorts."
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