China accused the US of having “ulterior motives” after Washington ran its largest military exercise in the South China Sea in years over the weekend. The exercise coincided with Chinese Naval drills held in the same area near the Paracel Islands, a disputed archipelago.
The US Navy’s Seventh Fleet ran the exercise, which involved two aircraft carriers, under the guise of supporting “a free and open Indo-Pacific.” But China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said the US was just looking to “show off its muscles.”
“The US intentionally sent a military deployment for large-scale exercises in the South China Sea, and to show off its muscle,” Zhao said. “They have ulterior motives. The US is creating division among nations in the region and militarizing the South China Sea.”
Global Times, a nationalist Chinese state-funded media outlet, tweeted on Saturday that China has “a large selection of anti-aircraft carrier weapons” and said they have “aircraft carrier killer” missiles. The Global Times also said any US aircraft carrier “movement in the region is at the pleasure” of China’s Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA).
The US Navy’s Chief of Information Twitter account retweeted the Global Times tweet about the missiles on Sunday and said the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Nimitz are “not intimidated.” The US Navy also posted a meme on Instagram that suggests it has no plans of staying out of the South China Sea.
Some showy military aid to Venezuela and Cuba —maybe offensive and defensive missiles– plus a buying and investment spree might be the canniest response to US carriers along the Chinese coast.
we are not allowing them anywhere near our shores or hemisphere for that matter unless they are passing through. china’s naval forces are hardly scareworthy.
Ok. If you say so, But this is the same crap that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis…. how’d that turn out?
it turned out fine if i remember. russia turned tail and went home.
….only after we turned tail and pulled our nukes out of Turkey, and promised to not mount any more CIA-planned Bay of Pigs fiascos.
“Global Times, a nationalist Chinese state-funded media outlet”
What do you think our warmongering media is, if not mouthpieces for the Pentagon and supporter of every bombing, invasion, and military moves we make?