Washington: The US Navy says the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan and its strike group entered the South China Sea earlier this month and have been carrying out air operations.
China routinely objects to US naval activity in the sea, especially when more than one strike group is present, as happened earlier this year, and when they involve operations with navies from other countries.
The strike group includes the carrier, its air wing, the guided missile cruiser USS Antietam, and the destroyers USS Mustin and USS Rafael Peralta.
The force “conducted flight operations with fixed and rotary wing aircraft, and high-end maritime stability operations and exercises,” its commander said in a news release.
“Operations in the South China Sea continue to demonstrate enduring US commitment to allies and partners, and a cooperative approach to regional stability and freedom of the seas,” the release said.
China is holding another round of military drills in the South China Sea amid an uptick in such activity in the area highlighting growing tensions.
China reportedly called together diplomats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations last month to seek their backing after a new diplomatic challenge from the US.
It’s not clear if the meeting yielded any immediate gains as talks between China and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) remain in limbo.
The US permanent representative to the United Nations has fired back at Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The meeting in Beijing was called three weeks after the US rejected nearly all of Beijing’s South China Sea claims and in effect sided with the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei in each of their territorial spats with Beijing. China responded by saying the US was trying to sow discord and was meddling in an Asian dispute to flex its muscles and incite a confrontation.
The Philippine government filed a diplomatic protest after Chinese forces seized fishing equipment set up by Filipinos in disputed Scarborough Shoal.
China seized the ship after a tense sea standoff in 2012, and the Philippines brought its disputes to international arbitration the following year. The tribunal in 2016 invalidated China’s claims to virtually the entire South China Sea, but Beijing continues to ignore and defy the decision.
The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said in a statement that the Philippines also “resolutely objected” to China continuing to issue radio challenges to Philippine aircraft patrolling over the disputed waters.
A Chinese government spokesperson responded that its coast guard was enforcing the law in Chinese waters, and that the Philippine aircraft had harmed China’s sovereignty and threatened its security.
Vietnam has asked Malaysia to investigate a coast guard vessel that fired shots at two Vietnamese fishing boats, killing one fisherman.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency said officers fired in self-defence after two Vietnamese boats entered Malaysian waters late on August 16. Fishermen aboard threw gasoline bombs and tried to ram their vessel. One Vietnamese fisherman was killed and 18 others were detained, the agency said.
Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry asked Malaysia to investigate and “reprimand officers who killed the Vietnamese citizen and treat other Vietnamese fishermen and their properties in a humane way.”
