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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsU.S. Warships Enter South China Sea Hot Spot as Tensions With China Escalate
American warships have sailed into disputed waters in the South China Sea, according to military analysts, heightening a standoff in the waterway and sharpening the rivalry between the United States and China, even as much of the world is in lockdown because of the coronavirus.
The America, an amphibious assault ship, and the Bunker Hill, a guided missile cruiser, entered contested waters off Malaysia. At the same time, a Chinese government ship in the area has for days been tailing a Malaysian state oil company ship carrying out exploratory drilling. Chinese and Australian warships have also powered into nearby waters, according to the defense experts.
Despite working to control a pandemic that spread from China earlier this year, Beijing has not reduced its activities in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which one-third of global shipping flows. Instead, the Chinese governments yearslong pattern of assertiveness has only intensified, military analysts said.
Its a quite deliberate Chinese strategy to try to maximize what they perceive as being a moment of distraction and the reduced capability of the United States to pressure neighbors, said Peter Jennings, a former Australian defense official who is the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Since January, when the coronavirus epidemic began to surge, the Chinese government and Coast Guard ships, along with maritime militias, have been plying contested waters in the South China Sea, tangling with regional maritime enforcement agencies and harassing fishermen.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-warships-enter-south-china-sea-hot-spot-as-tensions-with-china-escalate/ar-BB12Zz4k?li=BBnb7Kz
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)If you think/know that General Trump is bad during a pandemic, imagine him handling a nuclear war.
"First, are they really missiles or a hoax from the democrats? If they are missiles are they really aimed at us? How do we know they are nuclear and I hear you are supposed to use them? I have been assured there is no attack. This looks bad. What have YOU got to lose. I am out of here."
Then, he runs off to the safe, Trumper Bunker with his spawn and sycophants without a launching a retaliation to appease his good buddies who assured him he would be the official Emperor of the World after the fallout clears, though the joke was on him. From there, they mutate into the Morlocks under ground and farm humans for meat in the wasteland once known as America.
TexasTowelie
(112,394 posts)Yes, everyone is distracted with the Trump virus so China is taking advantage of the situation.