(VOVworld) – The US Congress has asked the US Department of Defense to regularly report China’s moves in disputed waters, showing the US’s growing concern about China’s greater assertiveness in the East Sea and East China Sea. The task was included in the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act that the Senate passed last week.

A Chinese marine surveillance cruises next to a Japan Coast Guard patrol ship in the East China Sea. (Photo: Reuters)

The provision asks the Defense Department, within 180 days after the act takes effect, to submit a report to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee on China’s actions to disrupt the status quo in the seas. The report must include the impacts of China’s moves on US security interests in Asia-Pacific. The provision demands an annual briefing on how military exchanges between the US and China have lessened the risk for miscalculation and tensions in the East Sea and the East China Sea.