U.S. to boost South China Sea freedom of navigation moves, admiral says

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States, which is worried by China’s military buildup to assert dominance in the South China Sea, will increase freedom-of-navigation operations there, a senior Pentagon official said on Wednesday.

“We will be doing them more, and we’ll be doing them with greater complexity in the future and … we’ll fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows,” Admiral Harry Harris, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, told a hearing of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

“We must continue to operate in the South China Sea to demonstrate that water space and the air above it is international,” Harris said.

On Tuesday, Harris said in comments coinciding with a visit to Washington by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that China was “changing the operational landscape” in the South China Sea by deploying missiles and radar as part of an effort to militarily dominate East Asia.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/u-boost-south-china-sea-freedom-navigation-moves-093641933.html?soc_src=mail&soc_trk=ma

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