China appears to have stepped up its ever-increasing military presence in the region recently, with its deployment of missiles and fighter jets on yet another disputed island last month drawing the ire of the U.S.
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American aircraft carrier USS John C Stennis is sailing along in the South China Sea, reports said Thursday.
The South China Sea has become a source of tension between China, the USA, and some regional countries who are seeking control of trade routes and mineral deposits.
The Stennis deployed from Washington state on January 15.
Washington and China’s rivals have been accusing Beijing of attempting to take advantage of the situation and gradually assert control in the South China Sea. “You’d have to believe in a flat Earth to believe otherwise”.
“Our ships and aircraft operate routinely throughout the Western Pacific – including the South China Sea – and have for decades”, Doss said in a statement. Clay Doss, a spokesman for U.S. Pacific Fleet. Another destroyer and an amphibious dock landing ship had also made similar patrols last week, the paper cited Doss as saying.
China has seized a disputed atoll off the coast of the Philippines in the South China Sea, Philippine media reported on Wednesday, with at least five Chinese ships denying access to Filipino fishermen.
Six nations in the region lay claim to parts or all of the disputed islands chains.
It remains unclear if or when the ships will complete any freedom of navigation patrols, the Post reported. The Navy has carried out two controversial ones in the South China Sea since October, using destroyers to sail within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands claimed by China. China has called the patrols provocative. The Spratly Islands, a collection of reefs, rocks and other natural features, have been the site of extensive Chinese land reclamation projects.
Apart from China, the islands are claimed by members of ASEAN, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.
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These disputes have led to violence in the past. Almost a third of the world’s marine cargo passes through the South China Sea and the offshore islands located there are rich in oil.
