USS John C. Stennis

GLOBAL INSECURITY

U.S. DISPATCHES DESTROYERS TO SOUTH CHINA SEA AMID TENSIONS

Local mayor: 'The Chinese are trying to choke us'

Cheryl Chumley

The United States, in a show of force aimed at confronting China’s rising aggression, dispatched an aircraft carrier and five escort ships, including destroyers, to the South China Sea, military officials said Friday.

The dispatch signals China that the U.S. is not only watching, but prepared to defend, its interests regarding the disputed sea region, Fox News reported. It comes in response to China’s dispatch of several ships earlier this week to ward off Filipino fishermen from utilizing commonly shared fishing areas, the Quirino Atoll.

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Then, Eugenio Bito-onon, the mayor of Pagasa Island, a nearby post, said in Reuters: “This is very alarming. Quirino is on our path when we travel from Palawan to Pagasa. It is halfway and we normally stop there to rest. I feel something different. The Chinese are trying to choke us by putting an imaginary checkpoint there. It is a clear violation of our right to travel, impeding freedom of navigation.”

The Navy Times reported the U.S. sent the USS John C. Stennis, two destroyers, two cruisers and the 7th Fleet flagship to the area in response.

In previous testimony, U.S. Pacific Command chief Adm. Harry Harris told Capitol Hill lawmakers that China was trying to militarize the South China Sea, an area of ocean that’s also been claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam. The importance of the sea is that ships carting $5 trillion or so worth of trade travels the area each year.

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“In my opinion China is clearly militarizing the South China Sea,” Harris said, on February 24, the Navy Times reported. “You’d have to believe in a flat Earth to believe otherwise.”

China denied trying to militarize the area, saying it’s rather the United States that is ramping up aggression.

“If you take a look at the matter closely,” said a spokesperson for China’s National People’s Congress, in the Navy Times, “it’s the U.S. sending the most advanced aircraft and military vessels to the South China Sea.”

Pacific Fleet officials said the U.S. presence is nothing to be alarmed at – but military experts said the Navy’s latest dispatch is a clear message to China to cool it.

“Clearly, the Navy and [Department of Defense] is demonstrating its full commitment to presence and freedom of navigation in the region,” said Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain who now serves as an analyst with the Center for a New American Security organization, the Navy Times reported. “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 the world.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/03/u-s-dispatches-destroyers-to-south-china-sea-amid-tensions/#M0GOUYRRg1uyuRqi.99