SINGAPORE – 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.
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KEYWORDS
China,
Armed conflicts,
U.S.,
violence,
Vietnam,
energy,
oceans,
Philippines,
Military,
oil,
disputed islands,
South China Sea,
fishing
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