BANGKOK: The United States military released on Monday a video of what it called an “unsafe” maneuver in the Taiwan Strait last weekend in which a Chinese navy ship cut sharply across the path of an American destroyer, forcing the US vessel to slow to avoid a collision.

The incident occurred on Saturday as the American destroyer USS Chung-Hoon and Canadian frigate HMCS Montreal were conducting a “freedom of navigation” transit on the strait between Taiwan and mainland China.

China claims the democratic self-governing island as part of its own territory, and maintains that the strait is part of its exclusive economic zone, while the US and its allies regularly sail through and fly over the passage to emphasize their contention that the waters are international.

During the transit, the Chinese guided-missile destroyer overtook the Chung-Hoon on its port side, then veered across its bow at a distance of some 150 yards (137 meters), the US Indo-Pacific Command said.

The American destroyer held its course, but reduced speed to 10 knots “to avoid a collision,” the military said.

The video shows the Chinese ship cutting across the course of the American one, then straightening out to start sailing in a parallel direction.

The Indo-Pacific Command said the actions violated maritime rules of safe passage in international water.

The Chinese ship did not attempt a similar maneuver on the Canadian frigate, which was sailing behind the American destroyer.

“Chung-Hoon and Montreal’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the combined USCanadian commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the IndoPacific Command said. “The US military flies, sails and operates safely and responsibly anywhere international law allows.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin defended the maneuver, saying it was undertaken “in accordance with the law.”

“China’s military actions are completely justified, lawful, safe and professional,” he told reporters in the capital Beijing. “It is the US that should deeply reflect upon itself and correct the wrongdoings.”

Washington recently accused Beijing of also performing an “unnecessarily aggressive maneuver” in the air, saying a Chinese J-16 fighter jet late last month flew directly in front of the nose of a US Air Force reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea.

The close-calls have raised concerns of a possible accident that could lead to an escalation between the two countries’ militaries at a time when tensions in the region are already high.

The incident in the strait came on a day when both US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu were in Singapore for the annual Shangri-La Dialogue defense and security forum.

Li on Sunday suggested that the US and its allies had created the danger with their patrols, and was intent on provoking China.

“The best way is for the countries, especially the naval vessels and fighter jets of countries, not to do closing actions around other countries’ territories,” he said through an interpreter. “What’s the point of going there? In China, we always say, ‘Mind your own business.’”

Austin had invited Li to talk on the sidelines of the conference, but Li refused.