Chinese, US Military Exercises Are New Norm in Disputed Asian Sea

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.