Though this seems to be getting a lot of press, this isn't really new. This one was just a little more than what they normally do. Pretty fun stuff.
What is the point of all this military "testing"? Is it merely intimidation to make a foreign ship feel unwelcome so close to Chinese territory or does it go beyond that?
Intimidation mostly. They don't want us so close to their territory doing our thing. We'd be doing the same if they were not far off our coast.
lol China's daringness is directly (negatively) correlated with its need for your cash. Didn't China recently by a heck load of T-Bonds?
this is exactly the same situation as when that Chinese fighter clipped the US spy plane; the similarities are spooky.
Not saying what China did is right or wrong, just curious: Should China park its spy planes and spy ships right outside San Diego naval base? How were the USSR spy planes and ships treated by the US previously?
Actually, a bit of googling reveals that this type of thing happens all the time. In 2002, for example, a Chinese "fishing boat" actually rammed and sliced off the towing sonar on USS Bowditch. So the question is, why all the hoopla now? Who is testing whom? Chinese news is speculating that it may be hardliners in the Pentagon trying to pressure the new administration on its China policy.
The way the (U.S.) media report is interesting. Couple of things to note: First, "the international water" so emphasized by the U.S. is only 75 miles off the coast of Hainan, which is well within the (200 nautical miles of) Exclusive Economic Zone of China -- an international default. Second, I am sure U.S. surveillance vehicles are operating all the time near China, but is it always this close? If the answer is no, then the premise that China is "provoking to test the reaction of new U.S. administration" is laughable at best. May be it's the other way around, that the U.S. is closing in on Chinese border to test whether China would react differently to the same old American gesture under a new President?
Hey, listen, I am not even going to pretend that the American ships were an 'innocent party' here, I know for damn sure that we spy on China 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and China for its part has a massive spy network operating inside the U.S. In my opinion at least, both approaches are fair game, it is nothing more than a small part of a much larger geopolitical chess game. We can at least agree that both sides KNOW it is going on and even EXPECT it to continue. That is what counterintelligence is for. However, the U.S. presence in or near Chinese waters likely won't abate, and for a simple reason really: we were there first! We have naval bases all over Asia and, in effect, 'surround' China in a manner that would be very difficult to duplicate around the U.S. China just does not have that kind of 'reach' and likely won't unless there is a dramatic decline in U.S. presence around the world, and especially in Asia, which then and only then would allow for China to swoop in and fill that vacuum. So in essence, we called 'dibs' first
I am not arguing all that. The question is who is pushing the envelope? By default U.S. media make it's the Commie.
Any time warships (and these are warships, regardless of what they look like... if it "says" U.S. Navy on the vessel, or on the PRC equivalent, it is a warship) or aircraft come within feet of each other, it's dangerous. Does it go on a lot? Yes, but it's still dangerous, and this is worse than usual. If we have to, we'll send an escort along with that spy ship, and things could get pretty hairy if similar incidents occurred then. No one wants an "incident" that could become violent. And no one wants a trade war, either. In today's economic climate, that would be amazingly stupid for both countries. And yes, both countries spy on each other, a lot.
None of what you said addresses his question of who provoked first. And, "oh, they lay some wood and clocked our passage" is kind of funny. That ship looks pretty big to me.
