Misunderstanding. at which point the navy crew responded with the scripted answer arguing that this is international air space. the navy plane has a right to be there just like a plane from any other government or country in the world. that said, the planes were staying 12 nautical miles from the perimeter of the manmade chinese islands. the sheer scale of investment china has made in the manmade islands is staggering. these are airports in the middle of the sea. one had a manmade harbor. the navy crew counted 85 ships in its manmade harbor. one of the concerns is that by building these islands, china could try to lay claim to energy
We have the latest from ivan watson from okinawa. reporter: christine, we got a rare look on board this plane at china s controversy manmade islands in the south china sea. it staked its claim in the body of water like vietnam and philippines have claimed by building the giant islands. they have airstrips and radar domes and towers and practically cities out in the middle of the sea. a four-story and five-story high buildings. while we were flying, we were challenged six times by the chinese military which instructed our navy crew to leave immediately to avoid a
Which are manmade. the area is contested by other countries in the area and china has constructed the manmade islands and while flying past, the chinese military challenged the u.s. navy plane six times. take a listen. u.s. military aircraft, leave immediately to avoid a misunderstanding. u.s. aircraft conducting lawful activities beyond the air space and exercising these rights is guaranteed by international law. reporter: now what this comes down to is china claims virtually all of the south china sea for itself. the u.s. government, many other countries in the region, refuse those claims and insist this is international water and international air space. that s where you have the standoff. going one step further, the
Beijing with so much in play on the trade front on the economic front. absolutely. and you will also see i think china playing levers in the south china sea. over the last two weeks, as you know we ve seen chinese bombers actually operating on these manmade islands throughout the south china sea. so china sees this as a larger game in the pacific, a long term geopolitical struggle really for dominance in that region. now, that doesn t mean we re headed toward a war with china at all. i think our interests converge more than they diverge. but over time, if we re going to solve the problem of north korea, we have to get china on board. and that may mean both trade and g gee he owe political copolitica we re going to succeed
. the trump administration is confronting china as u.s. and chinese officials hold high level talks on tariffs. the administration warned china of consequences for the ongoing militarization of the south china sea. they installed air strips and missile systems on manmade islands. dana white has more. we ve been very vocal about our concerns about them militarizing on these artificial islands. china has to realize they ve benefitted from the free navigation of the sea. the u.s. navy has been the guarantor of that. and they have also launched