Hawkish elements in the US government are attempting to provoke a confrontation with China over the disputed South China Sea to prevent Beijing’s rise in the Asia Pacific region, an American analyst in Washington says.

“The US has made it a policy long before the Trump administration of intentionally provoking conflict in the South China Sea, said Michael Billington, an editor for the Executive Intelligence Review.

“I don’t think Trump is interested in that kind of confrontation; it comes from the neocons, from the massively corrupt US Congress, which is running this vile, massive anti-China campaign, from the FBI,” Billington said Tuesday in an interview with Press TV.

The South China Sea “is being used as a tool by the anti-China mob, peeple that are frantic to prevent President Trump from forming friendly relations with both Russia and China,” he added.

China accused the United States on Tuesday of “maliciously hyping up” the South China Sea situation and making warrantless criticism, after the Pentagon said China was carrying out “coercive interference” in waters claimed by Vietnam.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a press briefing that Washington had repeatedly “made thoughtless remarks, made warrantless criticisms against Beijing, completely distorting the facts and confusing right from wrong.”

“China urges the United States to stop this kind of malicious hyping-up behavior, and play a positive and constructive role in regional and international matters.”

China claims the South China Sea in its entirety. It has deployed a survey vessel into waters off Vietnam, a country that has developed increasingly close ties with the United States.

Vietnam says a Chinese oil survey vessel and its escorts have violated its sovereignty.

The South China Sea has long been a source of tension between Beijing and Washington, which regularly dispatches warships and warplanes to the waters as part of what it describes as “freedom of navigation” patrols.

China has constantly warned the US against its military activities in the sea. Beijing has also urged Washington on numerous occasions to stop meddling in China’s territorial disputes with its neighbors.