According to a Reuters report citing unnamed US officials, the Obama administration has not approved another "freedom of navigation" patrol within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-built islands in the South China Sea this year as originally planned. However, one official was quoted as saying that the next US patrol was likely to come in January.

The Obama administration is preoccupied by chaos created by the Islamic State, with a growing frustration within the administration as to how to eradicate this terrorist group and maintain its own clout in the Middle East. However, it won't distract the US from expanding its military presence in the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest sea lanes.

In late October, the US sent the guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen on a course within the 12-nautical-mile border of the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea for several hours. For the past few years, the territorial disputes in the South China Sea among claimants mainly rested upon mutual agreement and are relatively well managed. But the US intrusion escalated the situation into real tensions.

While China advocates a new type of major power relationship with the US and calls for cooperation instead of confrontation, the US has kept seeing China as a threat to its global and regional hegemony.

During a speech at the Center for a New American Security in Washington on Monday, Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work expressed concerns about China's "impressive latent military technological capabilities" and claimed China may embody an "enduring strategic challenge" to the US.

The US is having trouble maintaining an advantage outside its soil in an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape, given what it is experiencing in Afghanistan and Syria. The risk remains that the US may use the South China Sea as a spot to serve for its strategic rebalance to the Asia-Pacific.

The US is an external power in territorial disputes among the different South China Sea claimants.

Given the maneuvers of some of the claimants, China has to adapt to a US presence in the region. Meanwhile, the US should also adapt to China's growing influence. The tension caused by the US will only exert a limited impact on China.

Managing and preventing clashes between Beijing and Washington in the South China Sea matters to not only regional peace and stability but also the future trajectory of bilateral relations.