US Navy asserts freedom of navigation in Chinese-claimed waters near Paracels

Guided-missile destroyer the USS Barry undertook the ’freedom of navigation operation’, sailing through waters near the Paracel islands in the South China Sea a week after Beijing designated an official administrative district for the islands, raising the PLA’s ire. The US Navy said that it sought to assert the ’rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea recognized in international law’.