The guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins, seen here in the Philippine Sea on April 24, 2025, conducted a freedom-of-navigation operation near the contested Scarborough Shoal on Aug. 14, 2025. (Kira Ducato/U.S. Marine Corps)
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The U.S. 7th Fleet rejected as “false” a claim by China this week that its forces drove a U.S. destroyer away from a contested atoll in the South China Sea.
China’s Southern Theater Command on Wednesday said it ordered its forces to “track, monitor, warn and expel” the guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins from waters near Scarborough Shoal, a feature claimed by China, Taiwan and the Philippines.
“The US military’s actions seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security, seriously undermined peace and stability in the South China Sea, and violated international law and basic norms governing international relations,” wrote spokesman Senior Capt. He Tiecheng on the command’s Weibo social media page.
The 7th Fleet, based at Yokosuka Naval Base, said the Higgins conducted a freedom of navigation operation near the shoal and left the area on its own accord. Fleet spokeswoman Lt. Sarah Merrill called Beijing’s claim “false” and said the Higgins operated within international legal standards, she told Stars and Stripes by email Thursday.
Philippine Coast Guard Commodore Jay Tarriela posted a surveillance photo of the USS Cincinnati in the South China Sea, Aug. 13, 2025. (Jay Tarriela via X)
“The United States is defending its right to fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, as USS Higgins did here,” Merrill wrote. “Nothing China says otherwise will deter us.”
The Higgins went within 13 miles of the shoal, close to the edge of territorial waters, she said.
Scarborough Shoal, known in China as Huangyan Island, is claimed by China, Taiwan and the Philippines.
Monday, a Chinese warship collided with a Chinese coast guard vessel in pursuit of Philippine coast guard and fishing vessels in the same area, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The littoral combat ship USS Cincinnati and the Higgins were briefly deployed Wednesday to Scarborough Shoal, according to a post that day on social media platform X by Philippine coast guard Commodore Jay Tarriela.
Tarriela cited U.S. officials and a Philippine surveillance flight.
Four Chinese coast guard ships and six Chinese maritime militia boats were also spotted near the shoal, according to Tarriela. Another Chinese vessel, a navy frigate, shadowed the Higgins and Cincinnati during the operation, he said.
Philippine Coast Guard Commodore Jay Tarriela posted a surveillance photo of the USS Higgins in the South China Sea, Aug. 13, 2025. (Jay Tarriela via X)
The U.S. regularly conducts freedom of navigation patrols in the South China Sea, where several countries ringing the sea have overlapping claims to maritime features. The patrols are typically a challenge to what the U.S. Navy describes as “unlawful restrictions” on innocent passage.
“China and Taiwan each purport to require, in violation of international law, either permission or advance notification before a military vessel or warship engages in ‘innocent passage’ through their territorial sea,” Merrill wrote.
Under the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, any ship is allowed to pass through territorial waters if its actions are not “prejudicial to the peace, good order or security” of the country in question.
The U.S. often cites the convention as the legal basis for its actions in the South China Sea, but it is one of the few U.N. member states that has not ratified it.
