USS Ronald Reagan reenters South China Sea amid tension over Pelosi visit

Special to BenarNews
2022.07.28
USS Ronald Reagan reenters South China Sea amid tension over Pelosi visit The USS Ronald Reagan arrives in Singapore on a port call, July 22, 2022.
U.S. Navy

The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group reentered the South China Sea and is heading north as China threatens military action should U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi make a visit to Taiwan.

The carrier left Singapore after a five-day port call on July 26, according to a statement from the U.S. 7th Fleet. 

The statement did not specify the USS Ronald Reagan’s current location but the U.S. Navy released a couple of photos of the carrier refueling-at-sea with the replenishment oiler USNS Tippecanoe in the South China Sea on Wednesday.

Data provided by the ship-tracking website Marine Traffic show the USNS Tippecanoe was well inside the South China Sea at the time of the replenishment operation.

The ship’s projection shows it is moving northward.

While this doesn’t necessarily mean the aircraft carrier would take the same route, some Taiwan watchers say it may sail near the island in the coming days.

An analyst who wishes to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue told Radio Free Asia, an online affiliate of BenarNews, that the Ronald Reagan could “sail close to the east side of Taiwan in a show of power but will not engage in any confrontation with China’s People’s Liberation Army.”

Chinese state-supported Global Times, meanwhile, quoted Song Shingling, a Chinese military analyst, as saying that “if the U.S. carrier strike group attacks relevant islands in the South China Sea or clashes with Chinese warships and fighter jets, this may equal to creating a conflict.”

220728-RFA-chart.png
USNS Tippecanoe’s past track from July 21 to July 28, 2022. [Marine Traffic]
Pelosi briefed on Taiwan trip 

The Indo-Pacific Command declined to confirm whether the Ronald Reagan, the U.S. Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier, will sail near Taiwan.

“We have nothing further on this,” said Cmdr. Tiffani Walker, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command spokeswoman.

The democratic island, which China considers one of its provinces, has come under the spotlight after press reports that Pelosi would visit Taiwan in early August.

Neither the U.S. government nor Pelosi’s office confirmed the news, but President Joe Biden indicated that the military “did not think it was a good idea right now” for Pelosi to visit Taiwan.

On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he had spoken with Pelosi and given her a security assessment of the situation, but did not comment on Taiwan, Reuters reported.

Earlier this week, U.S. Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro told the Associated Press that U.S. military focus in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in the disputed South China Sea, would never slacken.

He reassured Philippine officials, who have had spats with China in the disputed waterway, that the U.S. would honor it treaty obligations.

“As President Biden has said, if one country violates one inch of Filipino sovereignty, whether it be at sea or on shore or an offshore island, we will be there to support the Filipino nation and the Filipino people in every possible way,” Del Toro said.

Meanwhile, Biden was expected to discuss the visit, among other issues, with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in a telephone call on Thursday. It would be their fifth conversation since Biden became U.S. president in January 2021.

China already responded strongly against the rumored trip, with a People’s Liberation Army spokesman threatening that should Pelosi insist on making the visit, “the Chinese military will never sit idly by, and will certainly take strong and resolute measures” to retaliate.

The USS Ronald Reagan is a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered supercarrier, homeported in Yokosuka, Japan. It has been deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations “in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” the U.S. Navy said.

POST A COMMENT

Add your comment by filling out the form below in plain text. Comments are approved by a moderator and can be edited in accordance with RFAs Terms of Use. Comments will not appear in real time. RFA is not responsible for the content of the postings. Please, be respectful of others' point of view and stick to the facts.