China’s military said today it had driven out a US warship that had “illegally penetrated” an archipelago it controls in the South China Sea, an announcement the US described as “false”.

This episode takes place in the context of a battle for influence between Beijing and Washington in this maritime zone and intense rivalry on many other issues: Taiwan, TikTok, the treatment of the Uyghur minority, but also trade.

The destroyer USS Milius “illegally penetrated” today “without the approval of Chinese authorities into the waters of the Paracel Islands,” spokesperson for the Southern Theatre Command Tian Junli said in a brief statement.

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 23, 2023

The Chinese Ministry of National Defense is claiming that earlier today the USS Milius a Arleigh Burke-Class Guide Missile Destroyer of the U.S. Navy entered Chinese Territorial Waters in the South China Sea and was “Driven-Off” by Ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy. pic.twitter.com/84liY6HQ77

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 23, 2023

The Paracel Islands, an archipelago equidistant from the Chinese and Vietnamese coasts, are claimed by Beijing and Hanoi. The Chinese Navy took control of all of the islands in 1974 after a naval conflict.

“The statement by the PRC (People’s Republic of China) is false,” said a spokesman for the US military’s Indo-Pacific Command.

“The USS Milius (…) is conducting routine operations in the South China Sea and was not expelled. The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate where international law allows,” he stressed.

— China News 中国新闻网(@Echinanews) March 23, 2023

PLA Southern Theater Command dispatched naval and air forces to track, monitor and warn away the USS Milius guided missile destroyer when it trespassed Chinese territorial waters off the Xisha Islands on Thursday: spokesperson pic.twitter.com/DjeUx6Duuk

— China News 中国新闻网 (@Echinanews) March 23, 2023

China claims to have been the first nation to discover and name the islands of the South China Sea, through which much of the trade between Asia and the rest of the world passes today.

It thus claims a large part of the islands of this sea zone. However, other coastline states (Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei), have competing claims to sovereignty.

Each country controls islands and atolls, particularly in the Spratly Islands archipelago further south, where incidents are much more frequent than in the Paracels.

The United States regularly conducts so-called “freedom of navigation” operations in the South China Sea, sending warships to challenge Chinese claims.