US Deputy Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense in charge of Southeast Asia Reed Werner on May 19 revealed that Chinese fighters have harassed US reconnaissance aircraft at least 9 times in the East Sea region since mid-March, during

China’s allegedly `increasingly reckless` actions have prompted the US Navy to rush the aircraft carrier Roosevelt to continue sailing on its mission, even though many sailors still have to be quarantined on land due to Covid.

Observers assess that China’s drastic moves in the East Sea force the US to take appropriate response measures.

US and Australian warships conducted exercises in the East Sea at the end of April. Photo: US Navy.

To protest China’s illegal sovereignty claims, the US Navy regularly conducts freedom of navigation patrols, approaching entities illegally occupied and renovated by China in the East Sea.

China responds by often deploying fighter jets to fly on US warships to conduct freedom of navigation patrols, sometimes flying just a few dozen meters in front of US warships.

`Patrols are always very stressful. The US captain must always stay calm, avoid unnecessary confrontations and constantly report to superiors. The crew often breathes a sigh of relief after finishing the patrol,` said the former captain.

During recent patrols, the destroyer USS Bary and the cruiser USS Bunker Hill also encountered Chinese ships but did not let the situation escalate dangerously.

The current US goal is to gradually change China’s behavior without disrupting international relations, leading to a Cold War or armed conflict.

Stavridis believes that measures to increase pressure on China can be implemented in parallel with the cooperation proposal, such as negotiating a phase two trade agreement, cooperation on Arctic trade routes, and implementing

`Basically, the US will both cooperate and confront China in the near future. The situation in the East Sea will continue to be tense,` said former Admiral Stavridis.

A Chinese warship (right) encountered a US warship patrolling freedom of navigation in the East Sea in September 2018.

Meanwhile, Olli Suorsa, an expert at Singapore’s S. S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, warned that the joint promotion of activities by the US and China in the East Sea could lead to the risk of misunderstanding and escalation of external tensions.

Many experts also agree that recent US-China tensions in the East Sea show that the two sides increasingly distrust each other in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic still raging in the world.

`Both believe that the other side can take advantage of the Covid-19 crisis to increase pressure. However, the risk of conflict is still low because neither side wants war,` Zhang Baohui, director