Despite working to control a pandemic that spread from China earlier this year, Beijing has not reduced its activities in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which one-third of global shipping flows. Over the weekend, the Chinese government announced that it had formally established two new districts in the South China Sea that include dozens of contested islets and reefs. FILE -- The Scarborough Shoal, which was previously administered by the Philippines before being claimed by China in 2012, in the South China Sea, Sept. 5, 2018. “What is the intention of the US here?” said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, a think-tank in Singapore. The Indo-Pacific Command did not specify the exact location of the two US warships, citing operational restrictions, but it confirmed that the warships were in the South China Sea.

Source: bd News24 April 21, 2020 19:18 UTC