Remarks by U.S. officials on China's role in the South
China Sea are slanderous, its foreign ministry said on Monday, after the
United States voiced concern over reports of Chinese interference with oil and gas activities in the disputed waters.
China's claims in the South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in shipborne trade passes each year, are contested, all or in part, by Brunei,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
On Saturday, the U.S. State Department said China's repeated provocative actions aimed at the offshore oil and gas development of other claimant states threatened regional energy security and undermined the free and open Indo-Pacific energy market.