A senior American naval commander has implicitly accused China of creating “so-called military zones” close to artificial islands it has built in the South China Sea, declaring that such actions are eroding the security of one of the world’s busiest waterways. In a speech in Honolulu on Monday, the commander, Adm. Scott H. Swift of the United States Pacific Fleet, said commercial ships that had previously sailed freely through international shipping lanes were being diverted from areas deemed to be too close to the artificial islands built by the Chinese in the Spratly archipelago. Read more
