BEIJING: China's navy chief warned his US counterpart encounters between their forces could spiral into conflict, state media reported, two days after a US destroyer sailed close to Beijing's artificial South China Sea islands.
The comments by Admiral Wu Shengli, who commands the Chinese navy, were made in a video call with US Admiral John Richardson that lasted about an hour, Beijing's official Xinhua news agency said Friday.
They came after the USS Lassen guided missile destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of at least one of the land formations claimed by China in the disputed Spratly Islands chain.
Chinese authorities monitored and warned away the vessel, but did not otherwise intervene, although Beijing later summoned the US ambassador and denounced what it called a threat to its sovereignty.
"If the US continues to carry out these kinds of dangerous, provocative acts, there could be a serious situation between frontline forces from both sides on the sea and in the air, or even a minor incident that could spark conflict," Xinhua paraphrased Wu as saying.
"I hope the US cherishes the hard-won, good situation between the Chinese and US navies and avoids similar incidents from happening again," Wu added.
Beijing insists it has sovereign rights to nearly all of the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which about a third of all the world's traded oil passes.
The disputed waters -- also claimed in part or in whole by Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Brunei -- have also become the stage for a tussle for regional dominance between Beijing and Washington, the world's two largest economic and military powers.
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