China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy said it tracked, warned and “drove away” the U.S. destroyer USS Higgins after the vessel sailed inside waters it claims around Scarborough Shoal, known in China as Huangyan Dao. State media said the Southern Theater Command dispatched Type 22 missile boats to shadow the ship during Wednesday’s encounter. The U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet rejected Beijing’s account, saying the Higgins, accompanied by the littoral combat ship USS Cincinnati about 30 nautical miles from the reef, was conducting a lawful freedom-of-navigation operation and exited the area after completing its transit. Washington maintains the shoal lies in international waters, while China asserts sovereignty despite a 2016 international tribunal ruling that invalidated its expansive maritime claims. Tensions were already elevated after two Chinese vessels—a navy destroyer and a coast-guard ship—collided on 11 Aug. while chasing a Philippine Coast Guard vessel near the atoll. Hours before the latest U.S. sail-by, Manila reported that a Chinese J-15 fighter closed to roughly 200 feet of a Philippine surveillance plane carrying journalists, an interception that lasted about 20 minutes. The sequence of incidents underscores the risk of miscalculation in one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.