U.S. Pacific Fleet Chief Scott Swift in a surveillance flight over the South China Sea

According to a China Daily report on July 20th, China's Defense Ministry responded to the issue of the U.S. Pacific Fleet chief participating in surveillance flights over the South China Sea on July 18th.

"For a long time, U.S. military ships and aircraft have carried out frequent, widespread, and up-close surveillance of China, seriously harming bilateral mutual trust and China's security interests, which could easily cause an accident at sea or in the air," Chinese government strongly opposes to the move of the U.S.

China's Defense Ministry claimed that maintaining peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region is in the common interests of all parties. We hope that the U.S. could stick to the commitment and contribute more in upholding peace and stability, rather than taking the opposite side.