“China has lodged a solemn representation to the US as the USNS Impeccable conducted activities in China’s special economic zone in the South China Sea without China’s permission,” foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu told a biweekly media briefing in Beijing. ,

Reuters reported that ‘Washington had urged China to observe international maritime rules after the Pentagon said five Chinese ships, including a naval vessel, harassed the USNS Impeccable in international waters on Sunday’. A US defense department statement to the USNS. Impeccable, an unarmed ocean surveillance vessel with one ship coming within 25 feet. But in Beijing, Ma lashed out that ‘the US claims are gravely in contravention of the facts, confuse black and white, and are total­ly unacceptable to China’.

The confrontation has occurred soon after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s trip to Beijing to gather much-needed Chinese support for the US economic recovery. Both nations recently resumed military dialogue that was stalled in November after China protested planned arms sales from the US to self­ ruled Taiwan, over which China claims sovereignty.