November 5, 2015
Washington's Muddled Message in the South China Sea

by Mira Rapp-Hooper

After months of internal debate, the Obama administration last week finally decided to dispatch a warship to challenge China's far-reaching territorial claims in the South China Sea. But in the days since, U.S. officials have offered conflicting accounts of the operation, potentially undermining the whole point of the symbolic mission and raising doubts about whether Washington is ready to test Beijing's claims at all.

The cruise of the guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen had been billed as a "freedom of navigation operation" that would make clear that Washington regards the seas around Beijing's man-made islands in the South China Sea as international waters.

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