{AFP} February 19, 2017

Washington
(AFP) – A US aircraft carrier strike group is patrolling in the South
China Sea, the US Navy said Saturday, days after Beijing told Washington
not to challenge its sovereignty in the waterway.

China
asserts ownership of almost all of the resource-rich waters despite
rival claims from several Southeast Asian countries. It has rapidly
built reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes.

The
USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group was engaging in “routine
operations in the South China Sea,” the navy said in a statement on its
website.

It
noted that the ships and aircraft had recently conducted exercises off
Hawaii and Guam to “maintain and improve their readiness and develop
cohesion as a strike group.”