A US aircraft carrier was sailing through the disputed South China Sea on Tuesday after China built a string of islands with military facilities in the strategic sea it claims almost in its entirety, AP said. The US Navy also flew a small group of Philippine generals, officials and journalists to the USS ‘Theodore Roosevelt’. Also on Tuesday, a Defense Ministry spokesman in Beijing said China is entitled to strengthen its defenses on islands in the disputed South China Sea. China’s military deployments are “the natural right of a sovereign nation that helps safeguard national sovereignty and security,” Ren Guoqiang said, adding that those measures aren’t directed at any specific countries.