US shows China the Stars and Stripes.

[Dondilion]

A US destroyer sailed within the limits of the new islands "manufactured" by the Chinese.

A substantive message sent to the China that its limits will not be recognized.

Nice!

http://news.yahoo.com/u-navy-destroy...012942916.html

[JJIII]

From the link...

"A second defense official said the mission, which lasted a few hours, included Mischief Reef and would be the first in a series of freedom-of-navigation exercises aimed at testing China's territorial claims."

Now there is an apt name if ever I saw one.

[Dondilion]

The second map in the link indicates the Chinese huge territorial claim (dotted red line).

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china/34647651

[Boreas]

In case anyone was wondering what this is REALLY about:

The South China Sea is an extremely significant body of water in a geopolitical sense. It is the second most used sea lane in the world, while in terms of world annual merchant fleet tonnage, over 50% passes through the Strait of Malacca, the Sunda Strait, and the Lombok Strait. Over 1.6 million m³ (10 million barrels) of crude oil a day are shipped through the Strait of Malacca, where there are regular reports of piracy, but much less frequently than before the mid-20th century.

The region has proven oil reserves of around 1.2 km³ (7.7 billion barrels), with an estimate of 4.5 km³ (28 billion barrels) in total. Natural gas reserves are estimated to total around 7,500 km³ (266 trillion cubic feet). A 2013 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration raised the total estimated oil reserves to 11 billion barrels.[16] In 2014 China began to drill for oil in waters disputed with Vietnam.[17]

According to studies made by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Philippines, this body of water holds one third of the entire world's marine biodiversity, thereby making it a very important area for the ecosystem. However the fish stocks in the area are depleted, and countries are using fishing bans as a means of asserting their sovereignty

claims.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_China_Sea#Resources

China is very much a net importer of oil. Of course, they don't like being in that situation and, because of their phenomenal ongoing growth, their position as a foreign oil-dependent nation will only get worse unless they can do something about it.

Obviously, Vietnam and the Philippines want their slice of the oil pie too and, of course, Uncle Sam is always messing with other folks' oil.

Interestingly, the word "oil" doesn't appear in either of the articles Condillion linked to.