China casts shadow over Us-allied naval exercise

The world’s largest Us-backed naval exercise began off Hawaii yesterday, as diplomatic tensions escalated over China’s territorial ambitions in the Indo-pacific region. Several countries allied with the US participated in the exercise in the face of China’s attempts to assert control over critical trade routes. The pandemic had forced the biennial event, hosted by the US Pacific Fleet, to be scaled down, but it still involved 11 nations – excluding China – which had pointedly been “disinvited” in 2018 by the US.