UPDATE 2-U.S. destroyer sails in disputed South China Sea amid trade talks

(Recasts, adds Chinese military statement)
WASHINGTON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy destroyer sailed
near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea on Friday,
the U.S. military said, angering Beijing, which said the ship
had entered Chinese territorial waters without permission.
The busy waterway is one of a growing number of flashpoints
in the U.S.-Chinese relationship, which include an escalating
trade war, American sanctions on China's military and U.S.
relations with Taiwan.
Commander Reann Mommsen, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy's
Seventh Fleet, told Reuters that the destroyer Wayne E. Meyer
challenged territorial claims in the operation, including what
she described as excessive Chinese claims around the Paracel
Islands, which are also claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.
"...China has attempted to claim more internal waters,
territorial sea, exclusive economic zone, and continental shelf
than it is entitled under international law," Mommsen said.
The People's Liberation Army's Southern Theater Command said
in a statement that the Wayne E. Meyer had entered waters near
the Paracels without the permission of the Chinese government
Chinese forces were mobilized to monitor the ship and warn
it to leave, the statement said, adding the United States was
harming China's sovereign rights with its repeated patrols in
the South China Sea.
"We again stress that China has irrefutable sovereignty over
the islands of the South China Sea and their nearby waters. No
form of provocation by foreign military ships and aircraft can
change this fact."
The timing is extremely awkward, as the two look to try and
resolve a bitter trade dispute.
The United States on Thursday welcomed China's renewed
purchases of U.S. farm goods while maintaining the threat of
tariff hikes as the world's two largest economies prepared the
ground for talks aimed at breaking the logjam in their trade
war. China and the United States have traded barbs in the past
over what Washington has said is Beijing's militarization of the
South China Sea by building military installations on artificial
islands and reefs in disputed waters.
China's claims in the South China Sea, through which about
$5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes each year, are contested
all or in part by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and
Vietnam.
Beijing says its construction is necessary for self-defense
and that the United States is responsible for increasing
tensions by sending warships and military planes close to
islands that Beijing claims.