The operations of three US Navy aircraft carriers that are patrolling a sector of the Pacific and Indo-Pacific has drawn the ire of Beijing who feels threatened by the massed firepower of three carrier strike groups.
It has not happened for a long time, but after three years, the US Navy decided to operate three of its supercarriers that has made China reel back their forces. The Chinese are quick to boast that they will not be intimidated by the America spring patrol, which coincided with their purloining of contested areas in the South China Sea, report in CNN.
Locations of the Carrier Strike Groups
This dispatch of immense sea power was last seen in 2017 with tensions in North Korea's nuclear weapons development which was considered a serious threat. Now in the eastern Pacific, the USS Nimitz is on patrol in the western Pacific two CSGs are on standby and they are USS Ronald Reagan and USS Theodore Roosevelt. Both the TR and Ronald Reagan are operating a bit farther to the Chinese mainland too.
Initially, these carrier strike groups were reported in AP News as early as Friday.
In a statement by Rear Adm. Stephen Koehler, in an interview by AP News, he said that carrier strike groups and the aircraft carriers are expressions of Naval firepower are unmatched, and three of them at the same place is great. His office also heads the Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii.
Last Sunday, the Global Times sputtered as the Communists said that the US carrier strike groups posed a threat to the Chinese troops stationed there.
Global Times also reported that Li Jie stated that the US carriers are showing the world that it is the most potent Navy, more powerful than the PLAN. They will be unhindered and enter the South China Sea and even wipeout Xisha and Nansha, including Chinese warships, to allow US domination.
But, even so, the People's Liberation Army was quick to show off the armaments that could be used to kill American supercarriers. Like the DF-21D and DF-26 anti-ship ballistic missiles, which are touted as foolproof.
Deployment of the three supercarriers make Beijing insecure
The presence of three carrier strike groups indicates that four are in for maintenance.
Colin Koh said that China was happier with most of the carriers sidelined, which made Beijing haughty enough to show how the coronavirus has waylaid the Americans.
Last June 4, the USS Theodore Roosevelt went back to operations after leaving Guam and surviving a COVID-19 outbreak. Capt. Carlos Sardiello made a speech and called the ship a symbol of hope, and an expression of a nation's power.
This is the same as Ronald Reagan that was placed under new Navy protocols to avoid infection, before leaving from its homeport, but loaded with 1,000+ tones of weapons before leaving Japan.
Before moving the CSGs, US submarines were in operations in the Western Pacific. The numbers of the submarines were unknown, but the intel they got was part of the decision.
Carl Schuster, who was the former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, admitted it was not just coincidental.
The Chinese Navy got spooked by the US subs and now the three carrier strikes groups make the Chinese more jittery and add a flotilla of destroyers and cruisers too. Make the PLAN sweat profusely, confirm in American Action News.
Another incident is the overflight of a US Navy C-40 transport plane that is interpreted as a violation by the Chinese which was not, according to US Navy spokesperson Reann Mommsen, mentioned in VOA News.
