Two US Navy carrier groups conduct exercises in South China Sea

Two US Navy carrier groups have conducted joint exercises in the South China Sea in a move decried by Beijing as damaging peace and stability in the region.​

The American Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group and the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group “conducted a multitude of exercises aimed at increasing interoperability between assets as well as command and control capabilities,” the US Navy said on Tuesday.

The dual carrier operations were the first to have been conducted in the busy waterway since July last year.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin denounced the frequent movement of US warships and aircraft in the South China Sea as a “show of force” and not conducive to regional peace and stability.

“China will continue to take necessary measures to firmly safeguard national sovereignty and security and work with countries in the region to firmly safeguard peace and stability in the South China Sea,” Reuters quoted Wenbin as saying on Tuesday.

The South China Sea is a gateway to major sea routes, through which about 3.4 trillion dollars’ worth of trade passes each year. China claims sovereignty over much of the strategic waterway and has since 2014 built artificial islands on reefs and installed military equipment on them.

Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei have overlapping claims with China to parts of the sea.

The United States, which sides with Beijing’s rivals in the maritime dispute, routinely sends warships and warplanes to the South China Sea to assert what it calls its right to “freedom of navigation,” ratcheting up tensions among the regional countries.

China has constantly warned the US against its military activities in the sea, saying that potential close military encounters between the air and naval forces of the two countries in the region could trigger accidents.

The Tuesday exercises come days after a US navy warship passed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, which separates self-ruled Taiwan from mainland China, sparking a condemnation from Beijing.

That was the first such mission under the administration of new US President Joe Biden.

China on Thursday said the new US administration was using an old trick of “mixed manipulation” of the situation across the waterway to deliberately create tensions in the region.

China blasts US 'old trick' as first warship sails near Taiwan under Biden

China says US deliberately provoking tensions in the Taiwan strait.

The United States’ relations with China grew increasingly tense under the administration of former president Donald Trump. Washington clashed with Beijing over trade, the South China Sea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the coronavirus pandemic.

Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo even openly called for regime change in China.

The Biden administration appears to be pursuing a similarly aggressive policy against China.

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