At his confirmation hearing, Rex Tillerson–now certain to be sworn in as Secretary of State–implied he would support a blockade of China's artificial islands in the South China Sea. China responded with similarly forceful rhetoric and the stage looks set for confrontation. After Trump won the election, Tsai Ing-wen, President of the Republic of China on Taiwan called Trump and spoke to him directly, breeching decades of diplomatic practice in the process. China reacted by seizing a US Navy drone in the South China Sea, before handing it back without ceremony a few days later. Then China sailed its sole aircraft carrier down the Taiwan Strait to the South China Sea.

Source: Forbes January 27, 2017 02:45 UTC