Trump's campaign comments toward China were extremely strong, and we're likely to learn soon how much was rhetoric and how much will become actual policy.
Rex Tillerson, Trump's pick for secretary of state, said this week China would not "be allowed" to access islands in the South China Sea. China's official response has been muted. The press, less so.
China has returned a U.S. Navy drone it confiscated last week in the South China Sea. Some see the incident as part of a larger Chinese effort to gradually erode U.S. strategic dominance in Asia.
The U.S. said China's seizure of the drone last week was "inconsistent with international law and standards of professionalism for conduct between navies at sea."
U.S. officials say an unmanned underwater vehicle was seized by a Chinese ship on Thursday, about 50 nautical miles from the Philippines, before the Navy ship operating the drone could retrieve it.
Even as China presses ahead with a military buildup in the South China Sea, the U.S. invited it to take part in the world's largest naval exercise at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
An international tribunal rejected China's claims to almost all the South China Sea. China dismissed the ruling. The next flashpoint between the Philippines, China and the U.S.: the Scarborough Shoal.
Beijing rejects the ruling that China's claims are illegal. U.S.-China friction could grow over the Scarborough Shoal, also claimed by the Philippines.
A legally binding ruling from an international tribunal invalidated China's claims to the South China Sea. The country's vice foreign minister said, "I hope everybody puts the ruling in a paper bin."