China conducts military patrol in South China Sea, warns Philippines

By Lewis Jackson and Jenny Su

China's military said it had conducted a patrol in the South China Sea on Friday, the day U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reaffirmed Washington's commitment to Manila, which disputes some of Beijing's claims in the waterway.

A spokesman for the Southern Theatre Command of the People's Liberation Army said on Saturday that the Philippines frequently enlisted foreign countries to organise "joint patrols" and "disseminated illegal claims" in the region, destabilising the area.

Hegseth met his counterpart Gilberto Teodoro and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Friday in Manila, the first stop on a tour of Asia that also includes Japan. The same day, the United States, Japan and the Philippines held naval drills in the South China Sea.

The Philippine embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

China claims almost all the South China Sea - through which $3 trillion in commerce moves annually - overlapping with sovereignty claims by the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.