Standing on a nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier the length of more than three football fields as it plows through one of the world's most contested seas, Rear Adm. Marcus Hitchcock has only high praise for the navy of his biggest military rival: China.
Around 125 nautical miles from the Malaysian coast in the South China Sea, Hitchcock, the newly-minted commander of the carrier strike group led by the USS John C. Stennis, says his ships have been engaged on almost a "24/7 basis" with a "completely professional" People's Liberation Army Navy.
"We have had nothing but professional interactions," he said on the flag deck of the John C. Stennis, over the near-constant roar of fighter jets taking off and landing. "The ocean is a very connected environment, and the sailors that are on it, the navies that are on it are very connected, no matter what their nations are going through diplomatically."