Territorial disputes in the South China Sea U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and his counterpart from Malaysia, Hishammuddin Hussein, will visit the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) as it cruises in the South China Sea, this in the wake of China’s dismay over a U.S. Navy ship's sailing in the vicinity of artificial islands constructed by China in the Spratly Islands. Sources: Stars and Stripes