BEIJING – Two US Navy warships sailed near South China Sea islands claimedby China on Sunday, two U.S. officials told Reuters, in a move likely toanger Beijing as President Donald Trump seeks its continued cooperation onNorth Korea.

The operation was the latest attempt to counter what Washington sees asBeijing’s efforts to limit freedom of navigation in the strategic waters.While this operation had been planned months in advance, and similaroperations have become routine, it comes at a particularly sensitive timeand just days after the Pentagon uninvited China from a major US-hostednaval drill.

The US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Higginsguided-missile destroyer and the Antietam, a guided-missile cruiser, camewithin 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Islands, among a string of islets,reefs and shoals over which China has territorial disputes with itsneighbors.

The US military vessels carried out maneuvering operations near Tree,Lincoln, Triton and Woody islands in the Paracels, one of the officialssaid. Trump’s cancellation of a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Unhas put further strain on US-China ties amid a trade dispute between theworld’s two largest economies. Critics of the operations, known as a”freedom of navigation,” have said that they have little impact on Chinesebehavior and are largely symbolic.

The US military has a long-standing position that its operations arecarried out throughout the world, including in areas claimed by allies, andthat they are separate from political considerations.Satellite photographstaken on May 12 showed China appeared to have deployed truck-mountedsurface-to-air missiles or anti-ship cruise missiles at Woody Island.