CHINA US Focus - Perspectives shaping the world's most important bilateral relationship

China has spent nearly $1 billion on an ultra-deepwater rig that appears intended to explore disputed areas of the South China Sea, one of Asia's most volatile hotspots and where the United States is strengthening ties with Beijing's rival claimants.

 

For now, the locally built Haiyang Shiyou (Offshore Oil) 981 rig owned by China's state-run CNOOC oil company is drilling south of Hong Kong in an area within Beijing's ambit.