BEIJING -- China may step up patrols of disputed waters in the South China Sea to protect its interests in a range of areas following a recent confrontation with a US naval ship, state press said Thursday.
China last week dispatched its biggest and most modern fisheries patrol vessel, a converted naval ship, to the South China Sea after a near collision between Chinese vessels and a US naval surveillance ship earlier this month.
"Faced with a growing amount of illegal fishing and other countries' unfounded territorial claims...it has become necessary to step up the fishery administration's patrols to protect China's rights and interests," the China Daily quoted an official as saying.
"China will make the best use of its naval ships... and may also build more fishery patrol ships, depending on the need," said Wu Zhuang, director of the fisheries administration in the South China Sea.
The United States, which said its vessel was operating in international waters, lodged a protest with Beijing over the incident and then dispatched destroyers as escort for its unarmed surveillance ship.
China has claimed the US ship was operating illegally in its exclusive economic zone which covers three million square kilometers (1.2 million square miles) and includes the disputed Spratlys and Paracel Islands.
The Spratlys, a chain of atolls and reefs, is believed to sit atop vast mineral and oil deposits and is adjacent to busy international shipping lanes.
Apart from China the islands are also claimed in whole or in part by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
China's warning that it may boost its patrols also comes after the Philippines passed a law last week laying claim to some of the disputed islands in the Spratlys chain.
Beijing has called the law "illegal and invalid."
Many in the Philippines have viewed China's stepped up patrols as a move to flex growing military might against the smaller claimants.
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