US destroyer backs up Biden's tough words in South China Sea
CNN
A United States Navy warship sailed near disputed Beijing-controlled islands in the South China Sea on Thursday -- just hours after US President Joe Biden said the US must protect open access to the waterway.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur performed what the US Navy calls a "freedom of navigation" operation near the Paracel Islands, asserting "navigational rights and freedoms... consistent with international law," Lt. j.g. Nicholas Lingo, spokesperson for the US 7th Fleet, said in a statement. China calls the Paracels, in the northwestern portion of the South China Sea, the Xisha Islands. They have been under Beijing's control for more than four decades -- despite competing claims from Vietnam and Taiwan -- and China has fortified them with military installations.
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