South China

What until now was mostly effete jawboning over US complaints surrounding China's territorial expansion ambitions in the South China Sea, including the occasional sailing of a US ship deep inside the disputed territorial waters (with zero impact especially now that China may soon start building maritime nuclear power plants in the area), changed dramatically earlier today when China officially denied a U.S. carrier strike group's request for a port visit to Hong Kong next week.

The Stennis strike group

The US Defense Secretary made a sail of the South China Sea aboard an American aircraft carrier, underscoring American commitments to strengthening its Asia-Pacific alliances and moving more military hardware and troops there to counter China. Ashton Carter toured the USS John C. Stennis, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, as it cruised through the South China Sea on Friday near waters claimed by China.

The territorial scramble for various resource rich areas in the East/South China Sea and specifically the Spratly islands has been a major point of contention involving China and most of its regional neighbors, recently expanding to the US which is determined not to let China have the upper hand, for nearly two years now, with occasional episodes of escalation that threaten the regional peace. One such episode took place on Thursday of last week when the Vietnamese coast guard seized a Chinese vessel for intruding into its territorial waters, according to a local report Saturday.

Some believe that China’s dispute with America’s allies in The South China Sea may be the cause of the next world war. Now, the U.S. Navy has announced plans to patrol the disputed islands in the South China Sea in April. This mission comes after China has repeatedly told the United States to stay away from its international affairs. According to The New York Times: The exact timing of the exercise and which ship would travel inside a 12-nautical mile limit around a disputed island was not immediately clear.

The U.S. Navy have dispatched a fleet of warships to the South China Sea in a show of its military might amid tensions with China over the disputed islands. The U.S. claim that China are attempting to militarize the region in order to guard the territory that the U.S. say China have no right to claim. Navytimes.com reports: The stand-off has been heating up on both sides. After news in February that the Chinese deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile battery to the Paracel Islands, U.S. Pacific Command head Adm.