Navy Times  reports that “the Navy’s top officer made a trip to the world’s most contested waters over the weekend, stopping aboard the carrier John C. Stennis in the South China Sea.”  

“The Stennis has essentially moved into the South China Sea, spending all of May there in what experts say is a not-so-subtle message to China that the U.S. is going be present in what China claims as their waters.”  

“‘Everybody in the region is concerned about the stability, peacefulness and the prosperity of this region,’ Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, said in a video posted on his official Facebook page. ‘As I talk to them, I know its going to be OK because we have the John C. Stennis Strike Group on station here in the South China Sea.'”