BEIJING (CHINA) – Just days after being irked by the presence of a US aircraft carrier group in the South China Sea, China said on Tuesday it will host military drills in the contested waterway this week.
China’s Maritime Safety Administration has issued a notice banning the entry into a portion of waters in the Gulf of Tonkin to the west of the Leizhou peninsula from Jan. 27 to Jan. 30.
On Saturday, a US carrier group under the leadership of the USS Theodore Roosevelt entered the South China Sea to promote “freedom of the seas”.
The disputed waterway has become yet another flashpoint in the fragile bilateral ties between the US and China. Washington’s military has been stepping up its activities there over the past few years as Beijing asserts its claims in the area, angering countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan.