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China Rebukes US For 'Risky' Naval Standoff

China has warned the US against "provocative actions" following a tense encounter with an American surveillance aircraft over the contested South China Sea.

Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular briefing in Beijing on Friday that its military "drove away" the US intruder with radio warnings.

Beijing has been building artificial islands in an area vital to global shipping lanes, raising tensions with Washington.

The US Navy released video on Thursday from the P-8 Poseidon surveillance overflight near Fiery Cross Reef.

The footage showed a flotilla of vessels carrying out work in a lagoon, and an airstrip under construction on another island.

China's foreign ministry spokesman condemned Wednesday's US overflight as "highly irresponsible and dangerous".

"We are strongly dissatisfied with this," he said, advising the Americans against taking "any risky and provocative actions".

A CNN crew on board the P-8 captured the sharp radio exchange between the US aircraft and Chinese forces.

"This is the Chinese navy. This is the Chinese navy. Please go away to avoid misunderstanding," a voice can be heard telling the Americans.

The US crew responds that it is flying in international airspace, and a Chinese dispatcher answers: "This is the Chinese navy ... You go!"

Such Chinese warnings to US aircraft are not uncommon, a navy official told AFP news agency.

A US official said last week the Pentagon was considering sending more military aircraft and ships to assert freedom of navigation around the Chinese-made islands.

American P-8 planes and naval vessels have so far not ventured within 12 nautical miles of the islands - the standard territorial zone around natural land.

"That would be the next step," Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren told reporters on Thursday.

A US naval commander has accused China of building a "great wall of sand" in the South China Sea, over which Beijing claims sovereignty.

The US - which does not recognise China's claims to the manmade islands - says the Chinese have created 2,000 acres of land since last year.

But China has repeatedly said it has "indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha islands and adjacent waters".

The Nansha islands is China's name for the archipelago known in the West as the Spratly Islands.