Makin Island ARG Operating in the South China Sea While Beijing Claims U.S. ‘Muscle Flexing’
By: Sam LaGrone
December 9, 2020 5:58 PM
Amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island (LHD-8) underway in the eastern Pacific on April 20, 2020. US Navy Photo
Chinese reports accuse the U.S. of “muscle-flexing†after an American amphibious ready group quietly deployed to the South China Sea earlier this week.
USS Makin Island (LHD-8) and USS Somerset (LPD-25) entered the South China Sea on Sunday, according to Chinese state press reports, a Beijing-backed think tank that monitors U.S. military movements in the South China Sea, and publicly available satellite imagery.
The move, not announced by the U.S. Navy, was decried in the Chines press as “a bluff and muscle-flexing action that pundits believe would damage regional stability,†according to a Monday report in the state-controlled Global Times.
https://news.usni.org/2020/12/09/makin-island-arg-operating-in-the-south-china-sea-while-beijing-claims-u-s-muscle-flexing
