Just hours after the U.S. military criticized an "unsafe" encounter with a Chinese navy ship in the Taiwan Strait, China's defense chief on Sunday struck back, blaming such moves on "hegemonic actions" by the United States and its allies in that waterway and in the disputed South China Sea.
“We must prevent attempts (by those) who want to use freedom of navigation and innocent passage as pretexts to exercise hegemony of navigation,” said Li after a fiery speech before top defense officials at the Shangri-La Dialogue Asia security conference in Singapore.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) general said that every year tens of thousands of ships from different countries sail through the South China Sea without any security issues.