Beijing issued a warning to American warship in the South China Sea.

China claims it monitored and "warned off" a US Navy destroyer near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on Thursday, as tensions between Beijing and Washington in the region continue to grow. The guided-missile destroyer USS Milius "illegally entered" into Chinese territorial waters, Senior Colonel Tian Junli, a spokesman for the country's Navy Southern Theater Command, stated in a press release. Tian added that the Navy was ready to "take all necessary measures to safeguard national sovereignty, security as well as peace and stability" in the region. The US has denied the claim that the destroyer was driven away by China's warnings. The US Navy's 7th Fleet spokesman, Lieutenant (junior grade) Luka Bakic, told Associated Press on the same day that the warship was not expelled and that the US would "continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows." The US does not recognize China's sovereignty of the islands and has called it "unlawful" and posing a serious threat to the freedom of the seas. Similar incidents have happened before, with the destroyer USS Benfold being "warned away" from the region by the Chinese Navy twice in 2022, once in January and again in June.