Chinese, US Military Exercises Are New Norm in Disputed Asian Sea
Voice of America
TAIPEI - Back-to-back military exercises by the United States and China in a contested Asian sea this past week are shaping as a new normal as Beijing seeks control over the waterway and U.S. forces want it open for international use, experts say.
The U.S. Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group and the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group carried out “expeditionary strike force operations” in the South China Sea on Friday, the U.S. Pacific Fleet commander said in a statement online. Their exercises “took place in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific”, the statement says. A day later, the Chinese navy’s Liaoning aircraft carrier task group “reportedly” entered the sea from near Taiwan, the Beijing-based news outlet Global Times reported. It suggested the Liaoning group was doing “drills” in the sea. While the close timing and unusually large scale of the U.S. exercises caught attention in Asia, where other countries hope to get along with both superpowers, analysts say their military activities in the South China Sea are becoming ominously routine and will keep happening.A TV screen shows a file image of North Korea's rocket launch during a news program at a bus terminal in Seoul, South Korea, May 27, 2024. FILE - Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi speaks to reporters in Colombo, July 29, 2023. FILE - A TV screen shows a report of North Korea's spy satellite into orbit with its third launch attempt this year with an image of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 22, 2023.
Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. Fire rages following an Israeli strike on an area designated for displaced Palestinians, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, in this still picture taken from a video, May 26, 2024. Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli strike on a camp for internally displaced people in Rafah on May 27, 2024. A member of the bomb squad of the Israeli police collects debris after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants struck in the Israeli city of Herzliya on May 26, 2024.