China said on Tuesday it was waiting for an official word on why Japan plans to send its largest warship on a three-month tour through the South China Sea, but that it hopes Japan can be responsible.

The sea issue is a stumbling block in China-US relations, but it’s not clear that the new president sees it as more important that the RMB exchange rate or other issues in the bilateral relationship. In that case, “freedom of navigation” there could be used by Trump as a bargaining chip in negotiations about issues that concern him more.

Sending the first US aircraft-carrier combat group to patrol the South China Sea since the Philippines arbitration has unsettled the region. The US military should promote new trust-building with its Chinese counterpart, and the administration can ease tensions with a clear statement on sovereignty over South China Sea features.

In China’s foreign relations regarding the South China Sea (SCS) Issues, Vietnam is undoubtedly one of the key countries that China has to face and need to be handled well for its overall good neighbourly relations in its regional foreign policy.

The December 2016 incident involving a U.S. unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) was neatly wrapped up on December 20 after China returned the vehicle. Despite diverging legal interpretations, the management of the event reflected the political willingness of both countries to keep the South China Sea dispute under control and in a careful balance so that the situation does not escalate into a military confrontation.

China, in an early test of U.S. President Donald Trump, is nearly finished building almost two dozen structures on artificial islands in the South China Sea that appear designed to house long-range surface-to-air missiles, two U.S. officials told Reuters.

Mr. Tillerson betrays a lack of understanding of the U.S. position on the sovereignty claims in the South China Sea. As a matter of policy, the U.S. takes no position – and hasn’t for decades – on these rival claims. If the Secretary of State has the chance to encounter 96-year Li Jingsen on his next visit to Beijing, he might learn that the warships sent by China to recover the islands in 1946 were even provided by the United States.

A U.S. Navy P-3 plane and a Chinese military aircraft came close to each other over the South China Sea in an incident the Navy believes was inadvertent, a U.S. official told Reuters on Thursday.

The United States needs to brush up on its history about the South China Sea, as World War Two-related agreements mandated that all Chinese territories taken by Japan had to be returned to China, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Australia.

Duterte, whom some have dubbed as the “Trump of the East”, made it clear that he feels a sense of personal affinity with the new American leader, whom he has described as a kindred spirit, a fellow strongman and anti-establishment populist. There are, of course, legitimate concerns about the possibility of things spiraling out of control if and when mercurial and larger-than-life figures like Duterte and Trump collide. For now, however, Manila is optimistic about a diplomatic reset with its oldest friend, America.