‘On October 27, the US Navy guided cruise missile destroyer the USS Lassen sailed within 12 nautical miles of Spratly Islands in the South China Sea despite repeated warnings from China that such overt action would be taken as a deliberate provocation in an already strained relationship between the United States and China.

Alarmed Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui immediately summoned US Ambassador to China Max Baucus chastising him for the naval envoy’s near island pass-by, calling it an “extremely irresponsible action” and “a threat to China’s national sovereignty.”

China’s Communist Party run Global Times declared that by exercising tactful restraint but preparing for the worst, China is showing the White House that it “is not frightened to fight a war with the US in the region.” The article goes on to say that should any US ships linger in the area, China must “launch electronic interventions, and even send out warships, lock them by fire-control radar and fly over the US vessels.”’

Read more: Obama and His Neocons Ready to Risk World War III in the South China Sea