Beijing spurns US

BEIJING: China on Monday called on Washington not to pick sides in quarrels over the South China Sea, state media said, days after a US naval commander flew over the disputed waters.
US Pacific Fleet commander Admiral Scott Swift on Saturday made what the fleet called a “seven-hour maritime surveillance mission” over the South China Sea aboard a US P-8A Poseidon aircraft. Swift also visited the Philippines, a close US ally and one of several countries locked in territorial disputes with China over competing claims to the Sea.