power in the pacific china now has two operational aircraft carriers and an arsenal of missiles seen as a threat to us vessels and bases in the regionmilitary tensions have largely focused on the south china sea a crucial waterway that is the subject of overlapping territorial claims by china and several smaller asian nationsin 2018 a chinese destroyer came perilously close to colliding with a us destroyer the uss decatur while executing what the navy called an unsafe and unprofessional maneuver in the south china seaa chinese fighter jet collided with a us navy surveillance plane in international airspace over the south china sea in 2001 leading to major diplomatic incident after the us plane made an emergency landing on a chinese islandtaiwan is another potential flashpoint china claims the selfgoverning island as its territory to be taken by force if necessary the us is bound by its own law to ensure the island has a credible defense and has approved military sales to taiwan under trumptaiwans foreign minister said last week that chinese military flights near the island have been taking place on a neardaily basis more frequently than previously reportedwashington upped the ante earlier this month by declaring that it did not recogniwe most of chinas maritime claims in the south china sea a break with its previous policy of not taking a stance on the sovereignty disputes watch uschina feud trade technology and security at risk