China's Aircraft Carrier Is Not A Threat

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China's Aircraft Carrier Is Nothing To Fear -- Bloomberg editorial

Chinese officials gave U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel a tour of an aircraft carrier this week. The Liaoning is their only such vessel -- but not for long. China plans to build three more by 2020 as part of its new “blue-water navy,” a prospect that sounds alarming but isn’t. The cause for concern lies elsewhere.

A globe-spanning Chinese navy capable of operating across deep oceans will draw Beijing’s strategic vision away from its own neighborhood, where it's embroiled in territorial disputes, and toward the global commons, which China will have a growing stake in securing. The U.S. Navy's blue-water capabilities are vastly more powerful, and it will be that way for many years to come.

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.

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My Comment: China's goal is to be the global superpower in the next century. What they want may be expensive today .... but if their economy continues to grow and develop .... building and running a number of advanced carrier strike groups may be expensive .... but in the year 2114 it may be a price that China can afford, and more importantly be willing to spend. So yes .... today's Chinese aircraft carrier is not a threat .... but a few decades from now .... who knows what the threats are and where they may be coming from.