Special to WorldTribune.com
A report in Beijing’s state media said China’s increasing military “competitiveness” is making the United States “uneasy” and is contributing to the Americans’ need for more muscle flexing, namely the deployment of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group to the South China Sea.
The U.S. carrier group, which includes the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain and guided-missile destroyers USS Wayne E. Meyer and USS Michael Murphy, will operate close to where China is militarizing several disputed islets, including Scarborough Shoal.
“U.S. presence matters,” Rear Adm. John Fuller, strike group commander, told reporters on board the warship. “I think it’s very clear that we are in the South China Sea. We are operating.”
A Chinese military analyst blasted the deployment in an interview with the Communist Party-linked newspaper Global Times.
“The Trump administration is trying to pressure China by creating more issues, including the South China Sea issue, as it feels uneasy and unsatisfied by China’s raising competitiveness,” said Liu Weidong, a research fellow at the Institute of American Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
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