It’s been slow in coming. But next month, the United States Navy, maybe with some allied warships in tow, will stage what it bills as its largest defense exercise in the South China Sea — bringing the superpower confrontation between Washington and Beijing to a more intense and potentially explosive level. America’s apparent aim: to ratchet up the challenge to China’s territorial claims and military dominance in East Asia’s most strategic body of water, where most of the region’s seaborne energy supplies flow.

Saludo, R. (2018, October 18). Things are heating up in the South China Sea. The Manila Times, pp. A1, A5.