(CNN) The US Navy sailed a warship near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea Friday as part of an operation aimed at challenging Chinese claims to the area, a move that drew an immediate protest from Beijing which accused the US of practicing "navigational hegemony."

The guided-missile destroyer "USS Wayne E. Meyer challenged the restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, and also contested China's claim to straight baselines enclosing the Paracel Islands," Cdr. Reann Mommsen, a spokesperson for the US Navy's 7th fleet said in a statement.

"China, Taiwan, and Vietnam each claim sovereignty over the Paracel Islands. All three claimants require either permission or advance notification before a foreign military vessel engages in 'innocent passage' through territorial seas," Mommsen said, adding "the unilateral imposition of any authorization or notification requirement for innocent passage is not permitted by international law, so the United States challenged these requirements."

Mommsen added that "the United States also again challenged China's 1996 declaration of straight baselines encompassing the Paracel Islands," referring to China's claim to the islands and the nearby waters saying that "with these baselines, China has attempted to claim more internal waters, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone, and continental shelf than it is entitled under international law.

The Chinese Defense Ministry posted a statement online in response to the operation saying the US warship "trespassed into waters off China's Xisha Islands without permission of the Chinese government."

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