China’s military said it carried out combat readiness patrols near Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Sunday.
“Such patrols serve as an effective countermeasure to cope with all sorts of rights violation and provocative acts,” the military’s Southern Theatre Command said in a statement on the WeChat platform.
Earlier on Wednesday, China’s military drove away a Dutch navy vessel it accused of “illegally intruding” into the area around the Paracel Islands in the contested South China Sea.
Beijing claims the South China Sea in nearly its entirety despite a 2016 international ruling rejecting its assertion, fuelling tensions with its regional neighbours.
The Netherlands insisted that its frigate had been in international waters.
The Dutch navy frigate De Ruyter “repeatedly launched its shipborne helicopter” to “violate China’s airspace”, the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command said in a statement.
Chinese forces took measures such as verbal warnings and “electronic jamming” to force the vessel away, it added.
“The Dutch side’s actions seriously violated China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime and air security, seriously breached international law and the basic norms of international relations,” the statement said.
China “firmly opposes” the acts and has warned the Dutch side to immediately stop its “provocative” actions, it added.
The Dutch defence ministry denied that the ship had been in territorial waters.
The ship “is sailing on, in waters where free movement is allowed,” a defence ministry spokeswoman told AFP.
