US: China using coercive tactics

WASHINGTON: China is using “coercive tactics” and fostering regional tensions as it expands its maritime presence in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) and elsewhere, but is avoiding triggering an armed conflict, the Pentagon said Friday (Saturday in Manila).

In an annual report to Congress, the Defense Department outlined China’s rapid military growth and described how it is assertively defending sovereignty claims across the contested East China Sea and South China Sea.