U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen wave as they board Air Force Two at Yokota Air Base in Fussa, on the outskirts of Tokyo, on Tuesday. | REUTERS
Business Insider: 'We are here to stay' — Pence says he personally challenged China with a South China Sea flyby
* The vice president flew through the South China Sea Tuesday, reportedly to send a message to the Chinese.
* He described his flyby as something of a "freedom-of-navigation" operation, The Washington Post reported.
* Speaking earlier in Tokyo, he stressed that "authoritarianism and aggression have no place in the Indo-Pacific."
Vice President Mike Pence is traveling through Asia with a message for China, and that is that the US "will not be intimidated."
Flying from Japan to Singapore Tuesday, the vice president's Air Force 2 airplane reportedly passed within 50 miles of Chinese outposts in the contested Spratly Islands. Speaking with The Washington Post's Josh Rogin, Pence characterized the flight as something of a "freedom-of-navigation" operation.
As Pence's aircraft was actually a good distance from the islands, his flyby in the South China Sea obviously did not serve as an official FONOP or even as a particularly-demonstrative overflight, like the flights occasionally conducted by US Air Force bombers.
Read more ....
Update #1: Freedom of navigation? Defiant U.S. Vice President Mike Pence flies over disputed South China Sea (Japan Times)
Update #2: ‘Freedom Of Navigation’: VP Pence Flies Over Disputed South China Sea In Message To Beijing (Task & Purpose)
WNU Editor: Not impressed. He was far away from any of the islands that China is claiming.
