The long route of Nancy Pelosi's Tuesday flight over Borneo to Taipei and a U.S. aircraft carrier's complex passage through the South China Sea highlight the difficulties U.S. forces now face against a Chinese military keen to flex its muscles over Taiwan.
U.S. military officials repeatedly talk of "routine" patrols to support a "free and open Indo-Pacific" but the realities are increasingly challenging amid the worst Taiwan tensions since 1996, according to diplomats, military attaches and security analysts.
"The natural flight path would be over the South China Sea but the place is now bristling with radars, sensors and jamming equipment on China's island bases, so it is something to avoid in the Pelosi context," said Singapore-based security consultant Alexander Neill.
More than half of the U.S. Navy's 111 currently deployed battle force ships are now within the Japanese-based Seventh Fleet's sphere of responsibility that straddles the western Pacific and Indian oceans, according to the tracking by the independent U.S. Naval Institute. The passage of the Reagan strike group was particularly closely watched by regional security analysts in the days before Pelosi's mission.
The move came as China launched exercises between July 16 and 20 surrounding its bases further north in the Paracel islands, east of Danang and covering 100,000 square km, according to statements by local maritime authorities.
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