China criticizes U.S. carriers in South China Sea

The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group and the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group "conducted a multitude of exercises aimed at increasing interoperability between assets as well as command and control capabilities", the U.S. Navy said, marking the first dual carrier operations in the busy waterway since July 2020.

The exercise comes days after China condemned the sailing of the destroyer, the USS John S. McCain, near the Chinese-controlled Paracel Islands in what the United States calls a freedom of navigation operation - the first such mission by the U.S. navy since President Joe Biden took office.