The United States is prepared to engage in a confrontation with China over the highly-contested South China Sea, the impact of which could potentially trigger world war 3. US forces have now ramped up their presence on the waters by bringing in carrier groups.
Washington has now deployed carrier groups that include the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill as well as Arleigh Burke-class destroyers USS Russell and USS John Finn. The US strongly rejects China’s claims of having sovereignty over most of the South China Sea and has since increased its presence by performing regular patrolling missions to maintain the waters’ independence. It should also be noted that China’s claims overlap the claims of five other surrounding countries.
“After sailing through these waters throughout my 30-year career, it’s great to be in the South China Sea again, conducting routine operations, promoting freedom of the seas, and reassuring allies and partners,” said Rear Admiral Doug Verissimo, who is in charge of the carrier group. “With two-thirds of the world’s trade traveling through this very important region, it is vital that we maintain our presence and continue to promote the rules-based order which has allowed us all to prosper.”
Over the weekend, a Chinese aircraft flew over Taiwan’s airspace two days in a row. The Taiwanese military warned the aircraft to leave its airspace and was prepared to fire missiles as a precautionary measure. China and Taiwan are also at odds as China regards the island nation as part of the mainland and has threatened the use of military forces to reclaim the island.
The Cold War was seen as a possible World War 3 situation for decades, and investigators recently uncovered that the CIA ran a secret operation to obtain a wrecked Soviet submarine. The Soviet submarine was also armed and prepared to fire missiles at US West Coast targets.
It was revealed that six years following the Cuban Missile Crisis, in 1968, the K-129 Golf-class Soviet submarine sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean on its way to Hawaii. This led Washington to carry out a classified mission codenamed Project Azorian that was launched from a covert ship called the Glomar Explorer. They were seeking to recover the wreckage of the submarine under the belief that it may contain three ballistic missiles with each missile carrying a one-megaton nuclear warhead.