--- title: U.S.-China Showdown Keeps Inching Closer description: China is brazenly challenging the hegemony that the U.S. has enjoyed on East Asian seas since World War II. canonical: https://time.com/4236409/united-states-china-south-china-sea/ author: Mark Thompson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-24T22:21:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:49.701Z article:section: Politics og:title: U.S.-China Showdown Keeps Inching Closer og:description: Brazenly challenging the hegemony that the U.S. has enjoyed on East Asian seas. og:url: https://time.com/4236409/united-states-china-south-china-sea/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dadd3995645dcc7/69887f12cd1bba85dd6ff938/gettyimages-511282324.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: DigitalGlobe overview imagery from 09 January 2016 of Woody Island. Woody Island is also known as Yongxing Island and Phu Lam Island and is the largest of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S.-China Showdown Keeps Inching Closer twitter:description: Brazenly challenging the hegemony that the U.S. has enjoyed on East Asian seas. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dadd3995645dcc7/69887f12cd1bba85dd6ff938/gettyimages-511282324.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # U.S.-China Showdown Keeps Inching Closer > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Feb 24, 2016 10:21 PM UTC  This week’s deployment of aircraft on Woody Island extends the reach of Chinese warplanes about 250 miles into the South China Sea. This week’s deployment of aircraft on Woody Island extends the reach of Chinese warplanes about 250 miles into the South China Sea. DigitalGlobe via Getty Images by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Feb 24, 2016 10:21 PM UTC China is playing a game of chicken with the United States in the South China Sea. All signs suggest that Beijing is betting the U.S. will blink and swerve away before it comes to war. China is brazenly challenging the hegemony that the U.S. has enjoyed on East Asian seas since World War II, as the top U.S. admiral in the Pacific warns that a shrinking U.S. military is leaving him without sufficient forces to counter the rising superpower. While the U.S. has repeatedly called for diplomacy to settle multiple disputes over islands sprinkled across the South China Sea, China is unilaterally staking its claims by moving military gear to a growing number of them. It has been dredging the sea bottom to enlarge islets, and has built a 10,000-foot runway on one of them. Its goal is clear: to lay claim to 90% of the South China Sea, a vital commercial waterway that carries $5 trillion in annual trade. Regional powers—including Brunei, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam—are nervously, and so far vainly—waiting for the U.S. to do something to thwart the Chinese advance.  Marine General Joseph Dunford, left, meets last week in Hawaii with Admiral Harry Harris, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command. DoD photo China’s latest moves echo its pattern of asserting itself even as it appears to be currying favor with Washington. Five years ago, Beijing flew its top-secret J-20 stealth fighter while then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates was in Beijing. In 2013, the U.S. says a U.S. Navy cruiser almost collided with a Chinese warship that cut across its bow in the South China Sea while Vice President Joe Biden was in the Chinese capital. Last summer, a flotilla of five Chinese ships made an unprecedented trip into the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska, while Obama was visiting the state. Last week, the U.S. confirmed that China has deployed HQ-9 anti-aircraft missile batteries to Woody Island in the South China Sea as Obama was meeting with Southeast Asian leaders in Palm Springs, Calif. And on Tuesday, the Pentagon said the Chinese air force had dispatched J-11 and JH-7 warplanes to the same island, as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in the middle of a visit to Washington. “The fact is there have been steps by China, by Vietnam, by others that have unfortunately created an escalatory cycle,” Secretary of State John Kerry said during a press conference with Wang on Tuesday. “What we’re trying to do is break that.” Wang said nations in the region could settle their own differences. “There have not been any problems with freedom of navigation in the South China Sea,” he said. This is happening as much of Washington’s national-security apparatus is focused on the war against ISIS and the increasing momentum of an anti-U.S. alliance among Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and his Iranian and Russian partners. But U.S. Navy officials, who have ruled the seas off China’s coast for more than 70 years, are increasingly sounding the alarm. “China’s intent to militarize the South China Sea is as certain as a traffic jam in D.C.,” Admiral Harry Harris, chief of U.S. Pacific Command, told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. “I need weapon systems of increase lethality that go faster, go further and are more survivable.,” he added. “I’m comfortable where we are today, but today we’re not at war, and I think an important point.” On Tuesday, before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Harris said that the Navy is providing him with only about 62% of the attack-submarine patrols he says he need. He acknowledged the U.S. is stretched in the region, saying he has encouraged U.S. allies in the region to conduct regular freedom-of-navigation operations near the islands claimed by China to make clear they don’t accept Beijing’s territorial claims. Unsurprisingly, all this is likely to increase tensions. “A significant increase in Chinese forces and capabilities will lead to more frequent run-ins with its neighbors” in the South China Sea, warns Gregory Poling, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. This year, he adds, “promises to be a much tenser year in the South China Sea.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4236409/united-states-china-south-china-sea/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4236409/united-states-china-south-china-sea/"},"headline":"U.S.-China Showdown Keeps Inching Closer","datePublished":"2016-02-24T22:21:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:41:49.701Z","description":"Beijing dispatches more military might to the South China Sea","url":"https://time.com/4236409/united-states-china-south-china-sea/","keywords":["Military","China","South China Sea"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dadd3995645dcc7/69887f12cd1bba85dd6ff938/gettyimages-511282324.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Thompson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5dadd3995645dcc7/69887f12cd1bba85dd6ff938/gettyimages-511282324.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"DigitalGlobe overview imagery from 09 January 2016 of Woody Island. 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