The U.S. Navy said Tuesday that it had sailed a warship near the contested Spratly Islands in the South China Sea — home to fortified islands built by China — on Saturday, in what was believed to be its first freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) of 2020.

This year “could see a mellowed-down China which is preoccupied with festering domestic problems ranging from economic slowdown as a result of the trade war with the United States to turmoil in Hong Kong,” said Collin Koh, a research fellow and maritime security expert at RSIS.