Two nuclear-powered US aircraft carriers have begun exercises in the South China Sea while China’s military carried out drills in the same contested region.
The USS
Nimitz and USS
Ronald Reagan entered the sea over the weekend, the first time two American carriers have operated together in the area since September 2014. They were escorted by guided-missile cruisers and destroyers.
Rights and sovereignty claims in the sea, and China’s reclamation and fortification of contested islands, have been a source of growing tension between Washington and Beijing. China claims almost the entire area but other nations in the region have competing claims, and the US and its allies regard it as international waters.
The People’s Liberation Army Navy began military drills last week around the disputed
Paracel Islands, which are also claimed by Vietnam. One amphibious warship was spotted along with a number of Chinese coastguard vessels on satellite imagery. The Chinese naval exercise was to due to finish yesterday.
There has been no sign of China’s two aircraft carriers operating in the area, avoiding what could be a potentially combustible combination as the two US carrier strike groups arrived. Nonetheless the arrival of two US carriers will be viewed in Beijing as deliberately provocative.
The US Pacific Fleet has downplayed the decision, emphasising that the naval operation was not in response to political or world events. It is still a significant show of force, demonstrating America’s determination to continue defending the right of commercial shipping to transit through the South China Sea.
A US Navy spokesman said the carrier operations were being conducted to “support a free and open Indo-Pacific”.
A third American carrier, the USS
Theodore Roosevelt, is also
in the Pacific. It is back in service after being forced to dock in Guam because of a coronavirus outbreak.