Japan and the Philippines teamed up at a regional security forum this week to attack China over the disputed South China Sea, China's Foreign Ministry said, as details emerged of sometimes testy exchanges during the talks in Malaysia.
In a statement released around midnight Thursday, the ministry cited Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as telling the East Asia Summit earlier in the day that Beijing is not impeding freedom of navigation in the contested waterway.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told the forum that China is restricting navigation and overflights. Kerry also said China's construction of facilities for "military purposes" on man-made islands in the South China Sea is raising tensions and risks "militarization" by other claimant states.