"Recently the US vessels have often come close to China's coastal areas for surveillance purposes, such actions have negative impact on China-US relations and pose a threat to China's security… Beijing hopes that the United States will stop these activities and will avoid incident like the one noted," Lu said, commenting on the recent incident.
He stressed that China had always complied with international law to ensure safe, over-sea flights, and had always ensured mutual trust in its relations with other countries in order to resolve emerging disputes in a constructive way.
Chinese authorities have repeatedly voiced their protests against US actions in the region, which are considered by Beijing as violations of its own sovereignty. On July, Beijing expressed its outrage over US guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem entering the waters off the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, known in China as the Xisha Islands. According to Lu, the US actions violated Chinese law as well as international law, and constituted a serious political and military provocation.
