The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, home-ported in Yokasuka, Japan, returned to the South China Sea today, after a three-day port visit in Singapore. “USS Ronald Reagan and her strike group are underway, operating in the South China Sea following a successful port visit to Singapore,” Commander Hayley Sims, a spokesperson for the US 7th Fleet, said in a statement to Reuters. Sims added that the Reagan “is continuing normal, scheduled operations as part of her routine patrol in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.” According to Reuters, the statement made no reference to the rising tensions between the U.S. and China over the mooted visit to Taiwan of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian took note of the sailing of the Reagan during the Foreign Ministry’s regular press briefing this morning. “This is not the first time that the U.S. has sent its aircraft carrier to the South China Sea to flex its muscles,” he said. “It is clear to us all who exactly poses the biggest threat to peace and stability in the South China Sea and the Asia-Pacific.”
According to the U.S. Naval Institute’s Fleet and Marine Tracker for July 25, the only other aircraft carrier currently in operation in the Pacific is the USS Abraham Lincoln, which is participating in this year’s RIMPAC Exercise off Hawaii. In addition, the San Diego-based assault ship USS Tripoli is in Okinawa, carrying two squadrons of F-35B stealth fighters.
