The move appears to be a show of strength meant to signal the new administration's determination to stand firm against China's steady encroachment in the strategic waterway.
A video for "One Sea" was posted by the Chinese Embassy in Manila in an effort to foster solidarity in the fight against COVID-19. But many Filipinos saw it as Beijing pressing territorial claims.
The USS Carl Vinson, a nuclear-powered supercarrier, is expected to spend four days at the port of Danang at a time of tensions over China's expansion in the South China Sea.
Trump declined to say if meeting with Philippine president touched on human rights over Duterte's bloody war on drugs, but the White House says it did come up, briefly.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter: "We have said and we are acting on the basis of saying that we will fly, sail and operate wherever international law permits."
In just 18 months, China has created more than 2,000 acres of new land where before there were just waves and reef, according to the U.S., which sees the work as a threat to regional stability.
