Well, the USS Lassen sailed within 12-nautical miles of Subi Reef and surprisingly, World War III did not break out overnight.
(USS Lassen)
(Subi reef)
Nine months of tension between Washington and Beijing over the latter’s land reclamation efforts in The South China Sea culminated on Monday with President Obama’s decision to send a guided missile destroyer to China’s man-made military outposts on a “freedom of navigation” exercise. As we put it on Monday evening:
“The ball is now squarely in China’s court. The question now is whether Beijing will back down and concede that “sovereignty” somehow means something different with regard to the islands than it does with respect to the mainland or whether Xi will stick to his guns (no pun intended) and take a pot shot at a US destroyer.”
In short, some feared that based on recent rhetoric out of Beijing (e.g. the PLA will “stand up and use force”) that China might actually fire upon the US-flagged vessel or at least move to surround it in what might mark the first step on the road to war.
Ultimately, that didn’t happen as China apparently decided to take the high road for now and avoid an escalation that might have had far-reaching consequences.
That said, Beijing isn’t happy. Here’s more from Bloomberg:
