The United States on Monday rejected China’s disputed claims to offshore resources in most of the South China Sea, a move that Beijing criticized as inciting tensions in the region and which highlighted an increasingly testy relationship.
The United States is sending two aircraft carriers into the South China Sea at the same time as China is conducting military exercises in the contested waterway, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A U.S. guided-missile destroyer sailed near the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea claimed by China as U.S. officials meet their counterparts in Beijing for talks during a truce in a bitter trade war.
China on Wednesday launched its first domestically built aircraft carrier, which will join an existing one bought second-hand, amid rising tensions over North Korea and worries about Beijing's assertiveness in the South China Sea.
China will return an underwater U.S. drone seized by a naval vessel this week in the South China Sea, both countries said on Saturday, but Beijing complained that Washington had been "hyping up" the incident.
China appears to have installed weapons - including anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems - on all seven of the artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea; Aljazeera reported.
China U.S. President Barack Obama pressed his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Saturday on territorial disputes in the South China Sea, urging Beijing to uphold its legal obligations and stressing the United States' commitments to its regional allies; Reuters reported.
Iran called on China and the Philippines to keep self-restraint.
The U.S. Navy's Third Fleet will send more ships to East Asia to operate outside its normal theater alongside the Japan-based Seventh Fleet, a U.S. official said on Tuesday, a move that comes at a time of heightened tensions with China.
China and the U.S. sparred over maritime disputes at a weekend summit before sitting down for economic and security talks expected to be dominated by tensions over the South China Sea.
