China hit back Monday at U.S. criticism that it restricts navigation and overflights in the South China Sea amid the festering marine territorial dispute with some of its neighbors.
China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in maritime trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims.
Freedom of overflights and navigation doesn't mean allowing foreign warships and military jets to violate other countries' sovereignty and security, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday, after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry accused China of restricting such movements in the region last week.