US Navy to be more assertive in dealing with Chinas strategic threat

The US military warned on Thursday that its warships would
be ‘more assertive’ in near future while responding to threats such as
violations of international law, particularly citing Beijing, which possess expansionist
agendas in the South China Sea, AFP reported.

The Pentagon, while setting up objectives for the Navy,
Marines and Coast Guard to follow in the near future, noted in a document that countries
like China “are contesting the balance of power in key regions and seeking to
undermine the existing world order,” AFP quoted the Department of Defense
headquarter as saying.

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“Our globally deployed naval forces interact
with Chinese and Russian warships and aircraft daily,” the document was
further quoted as saying, further stressing that China, in particular, to be “the
most pressing, long-term strategic threat.”

China, in recent years, has been laying territorial
claims over almost all islands in the South China Sea – claims disputed by other
countries in the region such as Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, and Brunei.

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The US has been sending ships to the region in an operation
it terms to be ‘Freedom of Navigation’, apparently aimed that curbing China’s expansionist
progress.

Stating that US ships will be accepting “calculated
tactical risks and adopt a more assertive posture” in daily operations, the statement
further explains the US Navy to be modernizing its fleet with smaller, more
agile, and possibly remotely-piloted ships in order to take on the Chinese
Navy, whose battle prowess has tripled in the last two decades.