The South China Sea is the place of brimming tension between the US and the Chinese Navy as contention for sea lanes and resources, which Beijing wants to consolidate as their own domain despite international laws.
Many US navy ships are docked in Washington state that included two of America's most powerful aircraft carriers. The USS Nimitz is sailing somewhere but its exact location is unknown, reported King5.
China was given a thud by the US Navy when it sent the USS Barry to conduct a freedom of navigation operation or FONOPs that brought the US warship as close as 12 miles from the illegally occupied Paracel Islands, confirmed by SCMP.
It made Beijing furious and fired of claims that the Chinese Navy sent the American ship away. What happened was the US warship stayed and just loitered with the Chinese doing nothing to block the USS Barry, until got the point driven to Beijing. The USS Barry is docked in Japan. Later sorties in the SCS could be the ships currently docked in the Washington state.
Events in the South China Sea involves China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, with the disputed territory that is contested. The US has allies in Asia for years, which has drawn in the US Navy.
As China bullies its neighbors, US allies including Australia and Japan that are pushing back because The CCP is claiming the SCS as their own. In the South China Sea is where the most ships pass through, with reservoirs of oil and gas under the SCS, when it can be tapped later.
According to David Bachman of the Henry M. Jackson Professor of International Studies at the University of Washington, he stated that it was the 5th US freedom of navigation operation committed in the South China Sea, punctuating a serious intention to be visible.
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Bachman's expertise on China politics revealed that tensions are increasing with the global economy with the thrust of the Trump administration to paint China as the guilty party.
He added that the government is linking all the bad things that China has done. Add up the Hong Kong seizure of China, including the SCS tension, with claims that China started the pandemic, also the trade deal on January 15 that China cannot honor.
In Hong Kong, there is resistance to attempts by Beijing to give it more control over the former British colony, with tension increasing its crescendo.
The Chinese attacked civilian Vietnamese vessel for fishing. Later, the harassment of a Malaysian oil exploration rig that was hired by them started. Two ships, the USS Montgomery and USNS Cesar Chavez that drove Chinese ships away. According to retired four-star US Army General Barry McCaffrey, a commentator and consultant for NBCNews, said China is backing off blocking US Navy FONOPs, adding that the Chinese are posturing in the SCS to gain ground
General Barry McCaffrey said that the US might not station an aircraft carrier in the SCS, because China might fire shore-based ship killing missiles as described.
It seems that the US carrier fleet is there with the USS Theodore Roosevelt in active duty. The US Carrier will make a port call in Vietnam during March.
Two aircraft carriers are based in the Washington state, the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Nimitz, but the navy says the Nimitz is somewhere else, reported USNINews.
In Washington, there are ship ports going in or out of the US, China is the No.1 Boeing customer for new planes too.
According to Professor Bachman, all these developments will endanger a beneficial economic relationship, with US Navy ships that will face off the Chinese Navy in the South China Sea.
