This Is Why The Chinese View The U.S. Navy As A 'Paper Tiger'

Lyle J. Goldstein, National Interest: Is the U.S. Navy Weak? The Chinese Seem to Think So.

Chinese military commentators have shared their thoughts on recent U.S. Naval accidents and what they think it means for the larger geopolitical struggle in the Asia-Pacific.

When the USS Fitzgerald, a Burke-class destroyer and part of the U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet, was mysteriously struck by a merchant ship outside of Tokyo Harbor in June 2017, seven sailors perished in the tragic navigation collision. The episode was deeply shocking since a whole series of redundant technologies and shipboard procedures should have made that accident impossible. But when a similar episode befell another Seventh Fleet destroyer, the USS McCain, in August, in which ten sailors were lost, it became clear that the U.S. Navy (USN) had entered into a period of rather severe crisis. After mourning our dead, these disasters demand a top-to-bottom reexamination of training techniques, command paradigms, technological integration and operational patterns, at a minimum. This proud and venerated service must, above all, avoid the temptation to find easy answers and scapegoats.

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WNU Editor: I understand why the Chinese may view the US Navy as weak .... the U.S. Navy is everywhere, and resources are stretched. But they should not be over confident .... the U.S. Navy may be stretched everywhere, but they can quickly focus their energies on just one foe if need be .... and they could do it very quickly.