US flies B 52 bombers over South China Sea over trade with China.
Channel: The Robotic Sketch Comedy Report
Date: 2018-09-27

US B-52 bombers have conducted transit operations in the South China Sea and East China Sea, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, amid soaring tensions with Beijing over trade tariffs.
China on Thursday slammed the flyovers as “provocative”.
Late on Tuesday the heavy bombers took part in “a regularly scheduled, combined operation in the East China Sea”, Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn said.
A defence official said the nuclear-capable aircraft were escorted by Japanese fighters and the flight was part of the Pentagon’s “continuous bomber presence” in the region.
Earlier in the week, B-52s flew through “international airspace over the South China Sea”, Eastburn said.
Such flights are common and usually upset Beijing. China’s Defence Ministry said it would respond with “necessary means”.
“As for the provocative action taken by the US military aircraft, we are firmly against it and we will take all necessary means to safeguard our rights and interests,” the ministry’s spokesman Ren Guoqiang told a monthly news briefing.
In June, China’s foreign ministry said no military ship or aircraft could scare China away from its resolve to protect its territory after US B-52 bombers flew near disputed islands in the South China Sea.
China has claimed large swathes of the strategic waterway and built up a series of islands and maritime features, turning them into military facilities.
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have competing claims to the region, and an international maritime tribunal ruled in 2016 that China’s claims have no legal basis.