more and more i feel the reference 'watch the water' has to do with the eventual showdown in the south china sea. now i see this
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-southchinasea/u-s-navy-chief-says-u-s-china-to-meet-more-and-more-on-high-seas-idUSKCN1N41I0
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Chief of U.S. Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson said on Tuesday the United States and China “will meet each other more and more on the high seas” after a Chinese warship came close to a U.S. ship in the disputed South China Sea.
The Chinese vessel came within 45 yards (meters) of the USS Decatur during a “freedom of navigation” sail in late September, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said this month.
The U.S. mission was the latest attempt to counter what Washington sees as Beijing’s efforts to limit freedom of navigation in the strategic waters, where Chinese, Japanese and some Southeast Asian navies operate.
China’s relationship with the Russian navy should be watched “with interest” as it grows, said Richardson, speaking at an event co-organized by the U.S. embassy in Jakarta.
also
https://qz.com/1440601/chinese-military-command-monitoring-taiwan-south-china-sea-ordered-war-ready/
In recent years China has increasingly asserted itself in the South China Sea, building militarized islands atop reefs and fortifying other specks of land it occupies. China claims nearly the entire sea, using as justification its “nine-dash line,” which encircles most of the waterway. An international tribunal invalidated that claim in July 2016, but China disregarded its findings.
China has rapidly modernized and expanded its navy (paywall), which last year became the world’s largest, with more warships and submarines than the United States. Though the US Navy remains more advanced, admiral Philip Davidson, who leads the US’s Indo-Pacific Command, said in his Senate confirmation process (pdf) earlier this year that China “is now capable of controlling the South China Sea in all scenarios short of war with the United States.”