US stepping up operations in South China Sea, researchers say

Name: British warship Queen Elizabeth makes Singapore stop to reaffirm Asia presence
Uploaded: 2021-11-03T15:00:28.000Z
Duration: 1 min 44 s
Description: British warship Queen Elizabeth makes Singapore stop to reaffirm Asia presence

Think tank says the US is carrying out dozens of reconnaissance flights each month and there has also been an upsurge in naval activity

Number of operations means there is an urgent need for a code of conduct to avoid accidents, according to one analyst

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British, Japanese and US warships pictured during a carrier group excercise in the Philippine Sea. Photo: Handout

Teddy NgandLaura Zhou

Published: 11:00pm, 3 Nov 2021Updated: 8:25am, 4 Nov 2021

The United States has stepped up its military operations in the disputed South China Sea this year, according to new research from China.

The Beijing-based South China Sea Probing Initiative said the US military conducted 52 reconnaissance flights over the South China Sea in October.

The number of reconnaissance flights in October was down from the 62 recorded in September, but the think tank said other US military operations in the South China Sea were intensifying.

It said on Tuesday the scale of the operations had grown after the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group and the British carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth conducted a series of exercises last month, adding that the American carrier group had entered the area nine times this year.

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British warship Queen Elizabeth makes Singapore stop to reaffirm Asia presence

Wu Shicun, president of China‘s National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said the US has made more than 500 reconnaissance flight over the South China Sea this year – a total that rises to over 2,000 when operations over the Yellow and East China Seas are added.