The cancellation comes on the heels of a denied port visit for the USS Wasp to Hong Kong and a scrubbed engagement with China’s top naval commander.
WASHINGTON — While the Trump administration takes a victory lap in the wake of the new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, the relations between the U. S. and China, the world’s second largest economy, continue to intensify.
In the latest sign of the increasingly fraught ties, the Pentagon has canceled Defense Secretary James Mattis’ visit to China later this month, said a U. S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
For security purposes, the Pentagon does not discuss upcoming travel for the Defense secretary, which is why the visit to China, which was slated for mid-October, was unannounced. The cancellation comes on the heels of a denied port visit for the USS Wasp to Hong Kong and a scrubbed engagement with China’s top naval commander.
Much of the growing tension between the two nations is growing out of the South China Sea, which is home to key trade routes – and to an increasing Chinese military presence.
In an interview with CNBC last week, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, the branch’s top civilian, voiced concerns about China’s continued militarization of the South China Sea saying the U. S. Navy will «protect the lanes of commerce at all costs.»
«We will ply the internationally agreed upon open spaces of the ocean with our warships at all times to make sure that our commerce and our lanes of communication are open that is something we will always do,» Spencer said.
«If China comes and joins the world and recognizes international rules and international law of order, we are going to have a great relationship,» he added. «If they take this position that they are going to use their laws and their understanding of how they’re going to trade and protect their spaces, we are going to have to have some sort of discussion about this going forward.
