A US destroyer has entered disputed waters in the South China Sea, less than two days after an incident involving a Chinese coastguard vessel and a PLA Navy ship while the former was pursuing a Philippine coastguard vessel in the area.
The People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theatre Command said on Wednesday that the USS Higgins, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, had “illegally entered China’s territorial waters around Huangyan Island [another name for Scarborough Shoal] without the approval of the Chinese government”.
