Sailors from the US and China navies played tug of war on Thursday in what is being called sports diplomacy.

The USS Blue Bridge sailed into port in Qingdao on Tuesday to conduct a joint drill practicing search and rescue tactics and telecommunication coordinations.

The sailors of both countries decided to play soccer, basketball and tug of war for fun, as well as a way of easing tensions that have erupted now and then over China's assertion of rights to the 3.5 million square mile South China Sea and Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands.

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China claims ownership over the majority of the South China Sea and its collection of strategic islands, while countries such as Japan and the Philippines dispute the claim.

The U.S. has military pacts with Japan and the Philippines, obliging the U.S. to come to their aid if necessary.

US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Beijing last month for the sixth annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue following the rhetoric of Obama's pivot to Asia in an effort to stave off military conflict.

Political science professor Robert Ross of Boston College is unsure if the effort will work.

"US-China relations are worse than they have been since the normalization of relations, and East Asia today is less stable than at any time since the end of the Cold War," he said.

But amidst this backdrop, the Chinese navy has been participating in various international peace-building exercises such as the multinational RIMPAC naval exercises in Hawaii, soccer and basketball games last September in Pearl Harbor, and visiting San Diego this Sunday. 

Commander William Marks, spokesman for the USS Blue Bridge, commented on the importance of sports diplomacy.

"What we have found is at the fleet level, even when there are these diplomatic tensions, that at the navy-to-navy level, that is the area where we can work together," Marks said.

TagsEast China Sea tensions