US destroyer sails in disputed South China Sea amid trade talks

A US Navy destroyer sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea on Friday, the US military said, a move likely to anger Beijing at a time of tense ties between the world’s two largest economies.

“USS Wayne E. Meyer challenged the restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam and also contested China’s claim to straight baselines enclosing the Paracel Islands,” Commander Reann Mommsen, a spokeswoman for the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet, told Reuters.