For the first time in about three years, the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet has three aircraft carriers operating in the Pacific Ocean. The USS Nimitz is operating off the U.S. West Coast while the other two carriers, the Yokosuka-based USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Theodore Roosevelt, just recently freed from a COVID19 outbreak, are operating at opposite ends of the Philippine Sea, according to the U.S. Naval Institute’s Fleet and Marine Tracker.
CNN, citing a June 15 commentary in Global Times, is playing up the “swift reaction” from China, which likely sees them as a potential threat, in reaction to the deployments. GT cited Chinese military experts saying that the United States is attempting to demonstrate to the whole region, and even the world, that it remains the most powerful naval force, as the ships could enter the South China Sea and threaten Chinese troops on the Xisha and Nansha Islands as well as vessels passing through nearby waters, so that the U.S. could carry out its hegemonic politics, Li Jie, a Beijing-based naval expert, told Global Times.
China could counter the US move by enhancing its own war preparedness and holding corresponding drills, telling the US that China is capable of and determined to safeguard its territorial integrity, Li said.
