China has reached the stage of its economic and industrial development where it is pouring gobs of cash into a massive military modernization program. As a result of this push, it now has the world’s largest navy in numbers of ships, though not yet in overall tonnage. Beijing has been advancing in the naval domain at a breakneck pace.

Recently, China lashed out at their Japanese neighbors after the government of the new Japanese prime minister insinuated that her country would militarily defend Taiwan against any potential Chinese attack. This began a very nasty war of words and historical recriminations of epic proportions between the two Asian states. Threats were bandied about. Beijing circulated maps of Japan with missile targets on them. 

Tokyo looked to Washington for support…and was greeted by silence.

China understands the limits of US military support for its proxies nearest to Chinese territory. Accordingly, it is signaling to the whole region that its military, not the American military, is the dominant regional force. The message is clear: we are running things now, and the Americans will only passively watch us take what we want. 

Toward that end, Canberra awoke to a frightening reality when they detected a four-ship People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) task force operating south in the Philippine........

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