US military's 'new normal' source of regional tension

The maneuvers by US warships and fighter jets in the South China Sea and the Sea of Japan are a "new normal" that China and Russia have to face, as US military leaders said on the weekend they will continue their operations, and may do so more frequently as time goes on.

In that case, US President Barack Obama's "rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific" strategy, which was originally said to focus on economic and trade relations with countries in this region, has turned out to be a strategy of the US military to ratchet up confrontation with China and Russia.

Such a "new normal", which the US military justifies as necessary to assert its presence in Asia and the Pacific, evokes the Cold War.