The Pentagon increases the frequency of movement through the Taiwan Strait despite opposition from China.

U.S. Air Force B-52 bombers have carried out training in the vicinity of the South China Sea and the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, the Air Force said on Friday, in what a Chinese newspaper linked to China’s drills near Taiwan.

The US is spending naval resources it can ill-afford patrolling the Western Pacific. These patrols serve no useful purpose and only raise the risk of conflict with the Chinese Navy.

It’s important to be clear about what the U.S. and China’s new communication framework isn’t – it isn’t a crisis resolution mechanism, something that nominally already exists. Rather, the framework will set up a dialogue between the two countries’ joint military staffs to complement existing bilateral dialogues. What this dynamic suggests is that it is the United States, as the initiator of these measures, is the country most concerned about “miscalculation” or crisis escalation.

With little prospect that the Navy will grow at the rates its leaders say are required to stem an eroding advantage over great power competitors like China, the U.S. Pacific Command, which uses the largest share of the forces the U.S. Navy provides, is moving aggressively to build alternative capabilities to establish sea control without relying on additional ships or submarines.

The U.S. Navy's top commander in the Pacific says it's up to policymakers in Washington whether his sailors patrol within 12 nautical miles of newly constructed islands claimed by China in the South China Sea. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Scott Swift spoke during an interview Thursday amid tensions over Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea and reports the U.S. will sail near the disputed islands to challenge those claims.