At one point in his miserable disaster of a misadministration, Obama decided to do a pivot to China. You may have forgotten that ever happened because after it turned out to be a miserable failure, Obama and his media lackeys pretended that it never happened.
Here's how Obama standing up to China went.
On October 27 the US Navy conducted a "freedom of navigation" (FON) operation through the South China Sea. The move, which came after months of deliberations among the White House and the Pentagon, was meant to assert that the US did not recognize Beijing's extensive maritime claims in the region...
The FON operation was meant to feature a US Navy vessel sailing within 12 miles of China's man-made islands in the South China Sea while being followed by US surveillance planes. That distance was meant to challenge China's claim of having nautical territory that extends 12 miles out from any of its territories in the South China Sea.
But as Rogin reports, the White House insisted that the Pentagon refrain from carrying out more robust aspects of the FON operation. The Lassen was not allowed to "turn on sensors or fly its helicopters, actions that military experts say would have made clearer that the US was conducting a freedom of navigation operation," according to Rogin.
And it gets worse.
Euan Graham also reports for The National Interest that while carrying out the operation, the surveillance planes trailing the US ship stayed outside of China's declared 12-mile nautical boundary. This less-confrontational moves indicates that the entire operation was not actually a FON, but actually what's referred to in maritime law as "innocent passage."
And then there was the apology.
The United States said its two B-52 bombers had no intention of flying over a Chinese-controlled man-made island in the South China Sea, after Beijing accused Washington of "a serious military provocation" in the strategic waters with overlapping claims.
Pentagon spokesman Mark Wright said that the Dec. 10 mission was not a "freedom of navigation" operation and that there was "no intention of flying within 12 nautical miles of any feature," indicating the mission may have strayed off course.
But Trump seems to have signed off on the real deal.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. Navy warships sailed near South China Sea islands claimed by China on Sunday, two U.S. officials told Reuters, in a move that drew condemnation from Beijing as President Donald Trump seeks its continued cooperation on North Korea.
The U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Higgins guided-missile destroyer and the Antietam, a guided-missile cruiser, came within 12 nautical miles of the Paracel Islands, among a string of islets, reefs and shoals over which China has territorial disputes with its neighbors.