China scrambles jets as US navy ship sails close to disputed reef
A US warship sailed within 12 miles of Chinese-occupied Fiery Cross Reef as a part of the freedom-of-navigation patrol on Tuesday, an operation designed to demonstrate the opposition of the US to China's intention to restrict navigation in the South China Sea. China denounced this as an illegal threat to peace, shadowing the US ship with fighter jets and warships as a warning to leave. While the Pentagon assured the warship 'exercised right of innocent passage', the Chinese Foreign Ministry claims the US had threatened the sovereignty and security of the country and damaged regional peace.

HONG KONG — An American warship sailed on Tuesday within 12 miles of an artificial island built by China in the South China Sea, an operation intended to show that the United States opposes China’s efforts to restrict navigation in the strategic waterway, the Pentagon said.

The warship, the William P. Lawrence, a guided missile destroyer, ventured into the vicinity of Fiery Cross Reef, a 700-acre artificial island China constructed in the last 18 months on top of two small rocks.

The operation on Tuesday, known as a freedom-of-navigation patrol, came as tensions between the United States and China escalated ahead of a United Nations arbitration ruling on whether Beijing has the right to claim 12-mile territorial waters and 200-mile exclusive economic zones around reefs and atolls in the South China Sea.

The ruling, in a case brought by the Philippines, an American ally, is expected in the coming weeks.

China has built a military-capable runway and dredged a deepwater port on Fiery Cross Reef, one of seven specks in the Spratly archipelago close to the Philippines that it has enlarged. China contends that other countries must request transit rights for their ships around its claims in the South China Sea, the Pentagon said.