Defense Secretary Ash Carter listens to a question during a news conference after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015. In a symbolic swipe at China's muscular moves in the South China Sea, Carter was flying Thursday onto the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an American aircraft carrier in the disputed waterway. Carter is using the visit to the USS Theodore Roosevelt to amplify the U.S. view that China is making excessive claims that nearly all of the South China Sea as its territory. (AP Photo/Lai Seng Sin)