The U.S. Navy has sailed a warship near the disputed Scarborough Shoal, a strategic flash point in the South China Sea claimed by China, in a move expected to stoke anger in Beijing as the world's two biggest economies remain embroiled in a trade war.
The USS Preble guided-missile destroyer carried out the operation Sunday, a U.S. military spokesman told The Japan Times on Monday.
The Preble conducted a so-called freedom of navigation operation (FONOP), sailing "within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Scarborough Reef in order to challenge excessive maritime claims and preserve access to the waterways as governed by international law," said Cmdr. Clay Doss, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy's Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture-based 7th Fleet.