TEHRAN (Iran News) – The US and Chinese navies are both holding aircraft carrier drills in the waters off China’s coast. The US has stepped up its drills off China’s coast in recent years, holding multiple carrier drills as well as maintaining a constant daily presence with spy planes and patrol aircraft.

Washington has presented itself as a mediator in an ongoing dispute between China and several other nations, although the US has no territory in the region, Sputnik reported.

The US and Chinese navies are both holding aircraft carrier drills in the waters off China’s coast as Washington postures as standing up to Beijing’s “aggression.”

On Sunday, the South China Sea Probing Initiative (SCSPI) think tank reported that the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt had entered the South China Sea via the southern Strait of Malacca.

That same day, SCSPI reported a US guided-missile destroyer, the USS Mustin, was sailing in the East China Sea close to the Yangtze River delta and the cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou.

Then on Monday, China’s Global Times reported that the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning had led a task force alongside the Type 055 cruiser Nanchang through the Miyako Strait and into the Philippine Sea before launching exercises east of Taiwan.

The two carrier strike groups are hundreds of miles apart, but the convergence of the two nations’ naval forces highlights the growing tension in the region as the US doubles down on its diplomatic and ideological offensive to portray China as a threat to the global order.

Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Europe to press US allies on the need to close ranks against China. In an interview given to Italian media, he said.

Washington’s goal was “not to contain China or keep it down” but to “preserve the rules-based international order, in which we have all invested so much over the past 75 years, and which has served our interests and values well.”

“When someone challenges this system, be it China or others – when they do not play by or respect the rules, or try to undermine the commitments made by others, we all have reason to object,” Blinken said, accusing Beijing of “undermining this order, violating human rights and other commitments.”