The US Navy and Marine Corps are engaged in joint exercises in the South China Sea at a time of tension with Beijing over the downing of an alleged Chinese spy balloon.
The Japan-based 7th Fleet said Sunday that the USS Nimitz carrier strike group and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit were conducting the operations.
He added that the exercises involved ships, ground forces and aircraft and took place on Saturday, but did not give details on when they started or if they ended.
Beijing claims the entire South China Sea as its own and strongly opposes military activity by other nations on the waterway through which $5 trillion worth of goods pass each year.
The government has no official position on sovereignty in the South China Sea, but maintains that freedom of navigation and overflight should be preserved. Several times a year, he sends ships sailing past fortified Chinese outposts on the Spratly Islands, sparking angry protests in Beijing.
The US has also been strengthening its defense alliance with the Philippines, which has faced encroachment on islands and fisheries by the Chinese coast guard and nominally civilian but government-backed fleets.
The US military exercises were planned in advance. They come as already tense relations between Washington and Beijing have been exacerbated by a diplomatic spat sparked by the alleged Chinese spy balloon, which was shot down last weekend off the coast of South Carolina.
The United States said the unmanned balloon was equipped to detect and collect intelligence signals, but Beijing insists it was a weather research aircraft that accidentally veered off course.
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