The United States will keep challenging Beijing’s “assertive, aggressive behavior in the South China Sea,” the US Pacific commander said on Wednesday, as tensions between two powers rise over comments by Donald Trump. Adm. Harry Harris, head of the US Pacific Command, warned Washington would not accept Chinese control of the region, despite Beijing’s rapid development of artificial islands capable of hosting military planes. His remarks come as Beijing reacted angrily after Trump, the US President-elect, broke convention by speaking directly to Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen and suggested Washington could jettison Washington’s decades-old “One China policy.”

US warns 'aggressive' Beijing in South China Sea. (2016, December 15). Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. A11.