Map shows US and China's aircraft carriers in Pacific this week

The United States continued to face a "sea power gap" in the Western Pacific Ocean as none of its six West Coast-based aircraft carriers were underway in the contested region as of September 6. Meanwhile, two Chinese "flat-tops" were spotted operating in the country's nearby waters in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, with one of them on sea trial again. An aircraft carrier sent by Italy, a European member of the U.S.-led military alliance NATO, continued its Indo-Pacific deployment. It reached the South China Sea and visited the...