US Navy sails through South China Sea as Beijing conducts military drills around Taiwan

A U.S. Navy destroyer sailed through the South China Sea on Monday, which Beijing claims as its own.

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Milius sailed within 12 nautical miles, the internationally recognized limit of a nation’s territorial waters, of Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands.

China has claimed vast amounts of territory within the South China Sea and has claimed the territorial waters are theirs, though the United States disputes those claims of sovereignty.