WASHINGTON — A United States Navy destroyer entered waters near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea late Monday, Defense Department officials said, directly challenging China’s claims that the artificial island chain is within its territorial borders.

The Lassen, a guided missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles of the islands, making a long-anticipated entry into the disputed waters, an American military official said. American officials did not inform their Chinese counterparts as they planned the provocative maneuver, saying that to do so would have undercut their message.

“You don’t need to consult with any nation when you are exercising the right of freedom of navigation in international waters,” John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, said at a news conference.

Mr. Kirby said that such a challenge to what he called a questionable sovereignty claim was “one of the reasons you have a navy — to be able to exert influence and defend freedom of navigation on international waters.”

China has been reclaiming land in the South China and East China Seas for several years, and the projects in the vicinity of the Spratlys have come under increasing criticism from the United States and its regional allies, including the Philippines. The United States and several Asian nations dispute the legitimacy of the islands built by China.

As news of the American maneuver circulated in Beijing, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, urged the United States to “think twice before taking any reckless action,” China’s national broadcaster, CCTV, reported.

The Obama administration did not make an immediate announcement of the maneuver, and Pentagon officials would only confirm that it had occurred, as they forecast weeks ago.

The White House declined to share any details about the operation, referring questions to the Defense Department. But Josh Earnest, the press secretary, noted that President Obama stood next to President Xi Jinping of China at a Rose Garden news conference last month and said that the United States would operate, fly or sail anywhere that international law allowed.

“That certainly includes the ability of our Navy to operate in international waters,” Mr. Earnest said. “This is a critically important principle, particularly in the South China Sea, because there are billions of dollars of commerce that flow through that region of the world every year — maybe even more than that — and ensuring the free flow of this commerce, and that freedom of navigation of those vessels is protected, is critically important to the global economy.”

American officials had said for the last month that the Navy would send a surface ship into the waters claimed by China, a vow widely viewed as a signal to the Chinese that most of the rest of the world does not recognize its claim on the island chain. Mr. Obama approved the move this month, administration officials said.

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The president signaled the Navy maneuver last month at the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, when he said that the United States had an “interest in upholding the basic principles of freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce and in resolving disputes through international law, not the law of force.”

China, in what some Asia analysts interpreted as a gesture to pre-empt the American naval maneuver, sent warships into United States territorial waters in August. Five Chinese ships came within 12 miles of the coast of Alaska while Mr. Obama was visiting the state.