The recent deployment of a US aircraft carrier in the South China Sea shows that country's unease toward a raising China, Chinese expert said.
The Carl Vinson, one of the US Navy's longest-serving active carriers, conducted what US officials say was a routine mission through the South China Sea, AFP reported Wednesday.
"US presence matters," Rear Admiral John Fuller told reporters on board the USS Carl Vinson. "I think it's very clear that we are in the South China Sea. We are operating."
The location was a very direct message to China, whether US officials admit it or not, the AFP report said.
"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," Liu Weidong, a research fellow at the Institute of American Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
"Additional provocative moves by the US such as entering the South China Sea can be expected in the future," Liu warned.
A week before the Carl Vinson's deployment to the South China Sea, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the US State Department announced on February 5 that US warships would maintain their freedom-of-navigation operations in South China Sea.
In response, Chinese foreign ministry's spokesperson Geng Shuang said on February 6 "China respects freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea which all countries enjoy under international law, but firmly opposed the relevant country threatening or impairing the sovereignty and security interests of China and other littoral countries in the name of freedom of navigation and overflight," according to the ministry's website.
"At a time when the South China Sea is enjoying calm and peace, why is someone is so bent on setting winds blowing and waves rolling. By linking the so-called freedom-of-navigation operations with peddling their country's weapons, the relevant person in the US just laid bare their true motive," Geng said.
The Carl Vinson was scheduled to visit Vietnam in March according to the US government, and it will mark the largest presence of US forces in Vietnam since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the New York Times reported in January.
