Bloomberg has an editorial up today that attempts to pooh-pooh the threat of the Chinese aircraft carrier program. They do so with a mix of decent analysis and factual citation, but ultimately, their conclusion is flawed because of assumptions about what China hopes to do with its carriers.
First, the good news. They raise important threat-related issues in this paragraph: "The greater danger is China's other military investments. It's deploying thousands of surface-to-surface missiles near its eastern shore, and it is also building a fleet of quiet diesel submarines and advanced anti-ship ballistic-missile batteries. China's cyber-attacks on U.S. government agencies and private defense corporations have become increasingly aggressive." They are speaking here of course, of the greater danger to U.S. forces, which is a defensible position.
But that's not (in my view) why the Chinese are building aircraft carriers. They are not building aircraft carriers to become a "...globe-spanning Chinese navy capable of operating across deep oceans" and in the process, challenge the U.S. for global naval dominance. They are building aircraft carriers in order to project power in their near abroad, so that their regional dominance is enhanced and their influence over neighbors is increased. China wishes to create the impression that they are capable of operationalizing their claims in order to provide additional pressure to settle them in their favor.
The focus of the Chinese effort is not the US Navy; rather it is our system of friendships and alliances.
Bryan McGrath
No comments:
Post a Comment