Richardcyoung.com

The Online Home of Author and Investor, Dick Young

  • Home
  • How We Are Different
  • Debbie Young
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • Your Survival Guy
  • The Great Reset
  • The Swiss Way
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • COVID-19
  • Dick Young
  • Key West
  • Paris
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Work to Make Money/Invest to Save Money
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

China Is Building Its Fleet to Bully Neighbors, not Challenge USA, Yet

June 22, 2022 By The Editors

China’s first aircraft carrier, Liaoning. By Tik Tok @ Shutterstock.com

This week, China’s much-heralded “third aircraft carrier” took to the sea. Many pundits talked of China’s challenge to American naval power, but that’s just not where China is today. Sam Roggeveen explains in Foreign Policy why China’s navy is built to bully neighbors, not challenge American naval power. At least not yet. Roggeveen is the director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program in Sydney. He writes:

China’s launch of a new aircraft carrier, its third and the second built entirely at home, speaks to Beijing’s ambitions to become a military power of global standing and reach. And it suggests that China is prepared to compete with the United States on what has long been Washington’s strongest territory. U.S. military dominance, particularly in Asia, is built on maritime power, which in turn is built around its carrier fleet. Now China is offering a direct challenge: Anything you can do, we can do bigger and better.

Except, not quite.

It’s true that the new Type 003 carrier, now formally named Fujian, is a big improvement on China’s first two carriers. Both of those were smaller, which means they carry fewer aircraft. And they featured what’s known as a “ski jump,” a ramp at the bow of the ship that helps jets take off from the carrier’s short runway.

The ski jump imposes big constraints on the size, weight, and payload of the aircraft being launched, which is why the United States has always preferred steam-driven catapults to hurl aircraft off the ship at high speed. The Type 003 will use catapults, too, and they will be a more advanced electromagnetic design rather than steam-powered. This catches China up to the very latest U.S. technology, so far seen only on the new USS Gerald Ford.

But unlike the Ford and every other serving American carrier, Fujian is not nuclear-powered, which will make it more dependent on support ships to achieve long range and endurance. And then there is the issue of scale. This is China’s first supercarrier, now launched but certainly not finished and still several years from entering service. The United States has 11 supercarriers, each one more powerful than China’s first effort.

Quite apart from the continued massive difference in fleet size and capability, we should also think twice about framing China’s carrier fleet as a direct challenge to the United States. A confrontation between surface fleets centered around carriers in the style of the Battle of Midway is a remote prospect. Submarines and anti-ship missiles are now so potent and omnipresent that aircraft carriers probably wouldn’t survive long in a major war.

But that may not be the point. For the United States, aircraft carriers have been useful in the post-Cold War era against countries that were largely defenseless when it comes to naval warfare—Iraq, Libya, and Yugoslavia, for instance. In fact, the U.S. Navy has tacitly acknowledged this point by gradually decreasing the range of the combat aircraft it fields aboard its carriers. Why bother with long range if you can safely sail the carrier itself close to enemy shores?

China may be designing its carrier fleet for the same purpose. It wants a force that can help the Communist Party coerce or punish smaller powers, not fight a peer competitor. Right now, of course, China would find it hard to deploy this kind of power without stumbling into America’s security network in Asia. But already that network is fraying at the edges, as China has demonstrated by effectively taking control of the South China Sea, building artificial islands there and equipping them with military facilities. It happened without much resistance from the United States, which quite understandably calculated that its interests were not so threatened by China’s moves that it would be willing to risk a major war. That same nagging question—is America’s military leadership and alliance network in Asia really important enough to risk a confrontation with the biggest rival the United States has ever faced?—is slowly eroding the credibility of the U.S.-centered security architecture of the region.

So, the Type 003 may not be a direct challenge to American naval power. Rather, it is a sign that China is thinking about an era when the credibility of U.S. power in Asia has further eroded and when China itself has a freer hand to deal with smaller countries. In other words, China is building a post-American fleet.

 

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • Joe Biden Is Unprepared for the Real Challenge: China
  • India Clearly Outperforming China
  • Pompeo Preparing for US-China Talks
  • Buchanan’s Take on China
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
The Editors
Latest posts by The Editors (see all)
  • Are Banks Now a Bargain? - March 28, 2023
  • Biden’s Plan to Ban Over 80% of Gas Stoves - March 28, 2023
  • Top Democrat Senator Demands Biden Come Clean on Classified Documents - March 28, 2023

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • Your Best State on Guns, Plus the 8th Wonder of the World
  • Paris, The Palace Hotels: Part I
  • The Three Best Retirement Decisions I Ever Made
  • The Clock is Ticking: You Must Protect Your Family
  • Boom—Your Life Changes
  • Sen. Hawley Makes the Case Against U.S.-China Relationship
  • The Problem in America
  • What to Do about China?
  • Can Curcumin Help in Fighting Cancer?
  • Making America Great Again Is What America Wants

Our Most Popular Posts

  • Freefalling at Stanford
  • Is Vanguard Voting Against Your Political Beliefs?
  • Pushing Back at ESG
  • Rand Paul Surprises Moderna CEO with Inside Information about Myocarditis Risk
  • Does Anyone Still Think Ron Paul Was Wrong?
  • Biden's Fake Democracy Summit: Hungary and Turkey Snubbed
  • “You Just Have to Be Willing to Move Defensively”
  • The Forgotten America
  • Are You Fairly Wealthy? I’m Listening
  • Who'd be Nuts Enough to Have Put Money into SVB?

Disclosure

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Your Survival Guy’s #1 Habit of Fairly Successful People
  • New Regulation Coming for CDS Market?
  • “You Just Have to Be Willing to Move Defensively”
  • Americans Are Fleeing Bank Deposits
  • If You’re a Highly Effective Person, We Should Talk
  • Trouble Now Brewing at Deutsche Bank
  • Is Vanguard Voting Against Your Political Beliefs?
  • Are 0DTE Options a Threat to Markets?
  • “I Need Preservation of Principal and Growth”
  • Are You Fairly Wealthy? I’m Listening

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Your Survival Guy’s #1 Habit of Fairly Successful People
  • Western Real Estate: From Zoom to Bust
  • “You Just Have to Be Willing to Move Defensively”
  • Did SVB Fail Because of Climate Change?
  • If You’re a Highly Effective Person, We Should Talk
  • What’s Happening to Charles Schwab?
  • Prepare for the Predictable
  • Is Vanguard Voting Against Your Political Beliefs?
  • Call It the Difference between Normal and Crazy
  • “I Need Preservation of Principal and Growth”

Our Friend Natia Presiding at Thirsty Mermaid Key West

The Forgotten America

Your Survival Guy’s #1 Habit of Fairly Successful People

Gstaad and the Swiss Way

What’s John Kerry Doing in Mexico?

Neocon Foreign Policy: A 100% Failure Rate

Copyright © 2023 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives