THE army of china today accused the USA that “deliberately rekindle” the tensions in the South China Sea, because they sent a warship to sail, “illegally” according to him, into waters claimed by Beijing.

Earlier today, US Littoral Combat Ship USS Gabrielle Giffords illegally entered waters near Ren’ai Reef in China’s Nansha region. without the approval of the Chinese government,” said Tian Chunli, a spokesman for the Southern Command of the Chinese armed forces.

The Second Thomas Reef, known as Ren’ai in China, is about 200 kilometers from Palawan Island in the western Philippines and more than 1,000 kilometers from the nearest Chinese territory, Hainan Island.

The Chinese military “monitored the entire operation,” Tian Chunli said.

“The US’s deliberate rekindling of the South China Sea is a serious blow to China’s national sovereignty and security,” as well as “regional peace and stability,” he warned.

Chinese forces in the region remain “constantly on heightened alert, resolutely defend national sovereignty and national security,” he added.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, including waters, islands and islets off the coast of its neighbours, defying a ruling by an international court (2016) that ruled its claims lacked legal basis.

The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan also claim reefs and islets in this maritime area. Certain areas of it may have rich oil deposits at their bottom.

China has increased its patrols of the waters and reefs of the South China Sea over the past decade and has built artificial islands that it has militarized to bolster its position.

The Philippines, for its part, ran aground the BRP Sierra Madre, a World War II-era warship, on Second Thomas Reef to bolster its own claim to sovereignty after China seized nearby Mischief Reef in the mid- 1990. There are frequent clashes between Filipino fishermen and the Chinese coast guard in the area.