Trump has begun another trade war. Here's a timeline of how we got here
Canada's leader laments lost friendship with US in town that sheltered stranded Americans after 9/11
Chinese EV giant BYD's fourth-quarter profit leaps 73%
You're an American in another land? Prepare to talk about the why and how of Trump 2.0
Chalk talk: Star power, top teams and No. 5 seeds headline the women's March Madness Sweet 16
Purdue returns to Sweet 16 with 76-62 win over McNeese in March Madness
By Lewis Jackson and Jenny Su
BEIJING (Reuters) -China's military said it had conducted a patrol in the South China Sea on Friday, the day U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reaffirmed Washington's commitment to Manila, which disputes some of Beijing's claims in the waterway.
A spokesman for the Southern Theatre Command of the People's Liberation Army said on Saturday that the Philippines frequently enlisted foreign countries to organise "joint patrols" and "disseminated illegal claims" in the region, destabilising the area.
Hegseth met his counterpart Gilberto Teodoro and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Friday in Manila, the first stop on a tour of Asia that also includes Japan. The same day, the United States, Japan and the Philippines held naval drills in the South China Sea.
The Philippine embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
China claims almost all the South China Sea - through which $3 trillion in commerce moves annually - overlapping with sovereignty claims by the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.
(Reporting by Lewis Jackson and Jenny Su in Beijing; Editing by William Mallard)
