{"id":33163,"date":"2016-03-03T21:15:40","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T21:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smg.go-vip.net\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2016\/03\/03\/the-u-s-just-sent-a-carrier-strike-group-to-confront-china\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:27:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:27:42","slug":"the-u-s-just-sent-a-carrier-strike-group-to-confront-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2016\/03\/03\/the-u-s-just-sent-a-carrier-strike-group-to-confront-china\/","title":{"rendered":"The U.S. just sent a carrier strike group to confront China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article first appeared March 3 at 4:15 p.m.\u00a0and has been updated<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S.\u00a0Navy has dispatched a small\u00a0armada to the South China Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The carrier John C. Stennis, along with <\/span>two destroyers, two cruisers and the 7th Fleet flagship have sailed into the disputed waters\u00a0‘s command ship arrived <\/span>in recent days, according to two <\/span>military officials who spoke on background<\/span>. The carrier strike group is\u00a0the latest\u00a0show of force\u00a0in the tensehotly disputed<\/span> region, with the U.S. asserting that China is militarizing the region to guard its excessive territorial claims.\u00a0that has been at the center of a standoff between the United States and China over what the U.S. and others have said are China’s excessive territorial claims.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stennis is joined in the region by\u00a0the cruisers Antietam and Mobile Bay, and as well as <\/span>the destroyers Chung-Hoon and Stockdale. The command ship Blue Ridge, which serves as <\/span>the floating headquarters of the Japan-based 7th Fleet, is also in the area, en route to a port visit in the Philippines., and<\/span> Stennis deployed from Washington S<\/span>state on Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton <\/span>Jan. 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Japan-based Antietam, officials said, was conducting a “routine patrol” separate from the Stennis, following up patrols conducted\u00a0by the destroyer McCambell and the dock landing ship Ashland in late February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stand-off has been heating up on both sides. After news in February that\u00a0The move comes on the heels of a week where the U.S. and China traded barbs over the growing militarization of the region. Two weeks later, news broke that <\/span>the Chinese had <\/span>deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile battery to the Paracel Islands, prompting <\/span>U.S. Pacific Command head Adm. Harry Harris told lawmakers that China was militarizing\u00a0to tell congress Feb. 24 that he was convinced China was militarizing <\/span>the South China Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In my opinion China is clearly militarizing the South China Sea,” Harris testified on Feb. 24. “You’d have to believe in a flat Earth to believe otherwise.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overnight, Chinese officials dismissed claims<\/a> that China\u00a0was militarizing the region, pointing to the Stennis’s patrol as evidence that the U.S. was to blame for the increased military tensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The accusation [that China is militarizing the region] can lead to a miscalculation of the situation,” said\u00a0Fu Ying, a spokeswoman for China’s\u00a0National People’s Congress. “If you take a look at the matter closely, it’s the US sending the most advanced aircraft and military vessels to the South China Sea.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Pacific Fleet\u00a0spokesman\u00a0In a statement, 7th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Clay Doss <\/span>downplayed the heavy U.S. presence in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Our ships and aircraft operate routinely throughout the Western Pacific \u2014 including the South China Sea \u2014 and have for decades,” Cmdr. Clay Doss\u00a0said in a statement.\u00a0“In 2015 alone, Pacific Fleet ships sailed about 700 combined days in the South China Sea.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, experts say sending\u00a0Stennis and it‘<\/span>s air wing to\u00a0the South China Sea is a clear signal to China and the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

“Clearly the Navy and DoD is demonstrating its full commitment to presence and freedom of navigation in the region,” said Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain and analyst with the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C. “With the full carrier strike group and the command ship, the Navy is showing the scope of its interests and ability to project presence and power around world.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The destroyer Lassen’s vaunted October\u00a0patrol within the 12-nautical<\/span>-mile limit of China’s man-made South China Sea islands in October <\/span>was the first challenge of China’s sovereignty over the Spratly Islands since Chinese\u00a0land-reclamation projects\u00a0began there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Jan. 30,\u00a0the destroyer Curtis Wilbur patrolled near\u00a0\u00a0made a pass of\u00a0<\/span>Triton Island, part of the Paracel Islands chain China also claims, on Jan. 30<\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Six nations in the region lay claim to parts or all of the disputed islands chains. The Spratly Islands,\u00a0a collection of reefs, rocks and other natural features, have been the site of extensive Chinese land reclamation projects. In the last two years, China has begun constructing islands on top of the <\/span>reefs and claiming territorial seas around them to gain exclusive fishing and resource rights to most of the South China Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These disputes have led to violence in the past. In 1974, a conflict between South Vietnam and China led to a shootout in the Paracel Islands, located between Vietnam and China’s Hainan Island. That dispute continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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