US continues overflights of Chinese dredging operations
Quote:
The United States and China on Friday escalated their dispute over contested territory in the South China Sea, after the Chinese repeatedly ordered an American military surveillance plane to abandon flights over areas where China has been building artificial islands.
The continued American surveillance flights in areas where China is creating new islands in the South China Sea are intended to challenge the Chinese government’s claims of expanded territorial sovereignty. Further raising the challenge, Pentagon officials said they were discussing sending warships into waters that the United States asserts are international and open to passage, but that China says are within its zone of control.
The Defense Department planning comes in response to China’s accelerated efforts to build new islands in the South China Sea to bolster claims to a vastly expanded area of sovereignty, a direct challenge to the United States and other nations in the region.
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I've worried about a naval confrontation between US and Chinese forces in the China Sea for some time now. My guess is we'll see an incident of some form in the next few months if the current tensions escalate. At one time I thought we might be dragged into a Chinese-Filipino naval encounter, but now it appears it could happen without the Philippines being involved.