- The United States Navy has been challenging China in the South China Sea through disputed island patrols and presence missions.
- In addition to navigating destroyers, aircraft carriers, and other warships in the area, the Navy has also been creating memes in the South China Sea on its Instagram page.
- These memes have celebrated US military operations in the area, emphasized US plans to continue operating in the area, and even warned China against aggressive behavior.
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The U.S. Navy has not only challenged China in the South China Sea, but has also been creating memes about it.
The Navy’s official Instagram page is mostly filled with cool photos of the Navy doing their thing, images of sailors, ships, submarines, and various aviation assets, but scattered throughout is the occasional meme, several of which focus in the disputed South China Sea.
The South China Sea has long been a hot spot, but tensions between the US and China have risen again lately, especially as powers shift responsibilities for the coronavirus pandemic.
On Tuesday, following the release of a statement by the US State Department that it officially rejected many of China’s broad claims about the South China Sea and condemned its efforts to enforce its will, the destroyer of The Navy USS Ralph Johnson conducted a freedom of navigation operation in waters near The Spratly Islands.
The last patrol, which challenged China and some other plaintiff states, was one of at least six Navy FONOPs in the South China Sea contested this year and the third such operation that Navy ships have led to Cape near Spratlys. Other Navy operations have taken place near the Paracel Islands.
After the last FONOP, the US Navy released the following meme on their Instagram page.
Earlier this month, two aircraft carrier strike groups led by the aircraft carriers USS Nimitz and the USS Ronald Reagan conducted dual carrier operations in the South China Sea at the same time that China was conducting its own military exercises in other parts of the strategic waterway.
The day after the double carrier operations on July 4, the Navy made a meme about their activities:
The Chinese Foreign Ministry criticized the carriers’ exercises, accusing the United States of flexing its muscles to “undermine peace and stability in the South China Sea.”
The Global Times, a nationalist Chinese tabloid newspaper, argued in a publication that “the South China Sea is fully within the reach of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army” and that “any movement of the United States aircraft carrier in the region is exclusively of the pleasure of the EPL. “
The Navy replied that “it was not intimidated” and that the carriers were there “at our discretion.”
In February, the Navy revealed that a Chinese destroyer used a weapon-grade laser to target a U.S. Navy P-8 maritime reconnaissance aircraft in the Pacific. In an original meme released the next day, the US Navy warned China that “you don’t want to play laser tag on us.”
Beijing has repeatedly rejected US military activities in the South China Sea, as well as in other parts of the Pacific.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying condemned the United States on Wednesday and accused it of sending “large fleets of advanced military ships and aircraft to the South China Sea to flex muscles and cause problems.”
