China's Foreign Ministry has dismissed Hanoi's protest over the landing of a plane on a newly-built airstrip on a disputed reef in the South China Sea reef that is being occupied by China on Saturday, saying was a matter 'completely within China's sovereignty.'

Vietnam's Foreign Ministry reportedly handed a protest letter to the Chinese Embassy accusing the former of violating its sovereignty by the country's recent act in the disputed South China Sea

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Vietnam accused Beijing of violating it's territorial sovereignty after a Chinese plane landed on an airstrip Beijing has built on the Fiery Cross reef, which Vietnam said, was part of its Spratlys territory in the South China Sea.

Le Hai Binh, Hanoi's spokesman, said the structures on the Fiery Cross Reef were built by China ' illegally,' in a territory that is being claimed by Vietnam.

In the protest note, Hanoi described the Chinese test flight on the disputed reef as a 'serious infringement of our sovereignty on the Spratly archipelago' and asked the Chinese government to not repeat the action again.

In response, Chinese spokeswoman Hua Chunying has said China finished building an airfield on Yongshu Jiao of China's Nansha Islands (the Chinese name of the Spratly archipelago) and the test flight was conducted as a standard procedure.

Hua said the government used a civil aircraft in testing the new airfield to determine if it meets civil-aviation standards.

"China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters. China will not accept the unfounded accusation from the Vietnamese side," she said. "China-Vietnam relations, on the whole, are riding a momentum of development. It is hoped that the Vietnamese side can work with China towards the same direction and make concrete efforts to sustain the sound and stable growth of bilateral ties."

Meanwhile, the United States has expressed concern over China's test flight in the Spratlys saying this could exacerbate the already heated tensions among claimant countries in the South China Sea.

Washington has since criticized China for its land reclaimation activities in the region as well as the building structures and facilities on the artificial islands, which US security officials say may be used by China for military purposes.

The White House has issued a statement calling on all claimant-countries to commit to halt the building of new facilities, reclamation activities, and all actions tantamount to militarization of the region.

China is claiming 95 percent of all islands, islets, and reefs in the South China Sea believed to have huge deposits of gas and oil and through which $5 trillion worth of maritime trade passes through each year.

The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Taiwan have overlapping claims in the South China Sea.

TagsVietnam Foreign Ministry, China Foreign Ministry, Le Hai Binh