Chinese Military,Political and Social Superthread

[CougarKing]

"Tiger Mom" in the news again, and she doesn't disappoint in creating an uproar:

National Post

Tiger Mom sparks uproar with new theory on which cultures are destined for success

Tiger Mom’s claim that cultures blessed with ‘triple package’ get ahead in America sparks uproar

Amy Chua, the self-professed Tiger Mom who courted controversy with her bestselling book touting the superiority of Chinese mothers, is stirring a much bigger pot this time: Her new book claims that a short list of cultural groups outperform others in America.

In the book, Ms. Chua and co-author/husband Jed Rubenfeld — both law professors at Yale — name eight groups whose members have risen to the ranks of the rich and smart and powerful.

Mormons, they write, have recently experienced “astonishing business success.” Cubans in Miami, they say, have “climbed from poverty to prosperity in a generation.” They point to the stunningly high number of Nigerians who earn doctorate degrees, and to the extraordinarily high incomes of Jewish Americans. Also making the list: Indian-, Chinese-, Iranian- and Lebanese-Americans.


In the book, Ms. Chua and co-author/husband Jed Rubenfeld — both law professors at Yale — name eight groups whose members have risen to the ranks of the rich and smart and powerful.

These groups boast the ‘‘triple package’’: superiority, insecurity and impulse control.

“That certain groups do much better in America than others—as measured by income, occupational status, test scores, and so on — is difficult to talk about,” they write. “In large part this is because the topic feels racially charged.”

The inference that all other groups are somehow lesser — and the sweeping categorization of ‘‘groups’’ by cultural background or immigrant status — has rankled critics, who dismiss the book and its arguments as shock bait, an irresponsible festival of stereotypes that doesn’t account for fundamental inequalities that date back generations.

“The message of Chua’s book is based on a fairytale, an ahistorical view of the world where the playing field is even,” wrote ChangeLab blogger Soya Jung. “It asks us to forget that the present is built upon the past, that the real and brutal terrain of American enterprise is rife with racial bluffs and potholes forged over centuries.”

Both authors happen to belong to the superior groups, New York Post reviewer Maureen Callaghan wryly pointed out.

Asked about the controversy on Monday, sociologists and anthropologists said that despite its merits, the discussion of cultural difference inevitably becomes a minefield of assumptions, stereotypes and political correctness, especially when considered in the Western context.

(...)

 

[Edward Campbell]

For the past thousand years or so European Jews were the victims of discrimination ~ they were, amongst other things, not allowed to own land and so they turned to other occupations, most of which required a strong mind rather than a strong back. By the late 18th century European Jews, still victims of large scale, systemic discrimination, were entering and soon dominating Europe's intellectual elites, especially in finance, the sciences, medicine and politics.

That discrimination was not confined to Europe. In my lifetime there were Jewish quotas in Canadian universities and many private clubs, centres for business networking in the 20th century, specifically excluded Jews.

I'm sure there are sites that will tell you about Jewish domination of various fields but there is not doubt that Easter European Jews who came to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries created the myth of the American dream. Think of Samuel Goldwyn, Irving Berlin, Jack Warner and so on. Look as Jews in science: Einstein, of course, but also Edward Teller, Murray Gell-Mann and so on. Think of Freud and Sidney Farber, the father of chemotherapy, too. Why did Jews, such a small part of the population, contribute so much? In some part because they were a despised minority, because they were denied opportunities in the mainstream, Jews did two things:

    1. They turned inwards, establishing tight knit communities which provided mutual support; and, more importantly

    2. They turned to education and made it a mainstay of their social system.

Jews are not smarter than anyone else ~ nor are Chinese or Koreans ~ but their parents made them study longer and harder and they had strong "family values' so they worked harder than their confreres in university and they got a disproportionate number of places in the best graduate programmes and then they went to work.

Many Asians in Canada and the USA feel that they are the modern, 21st century "Jews." There are several respected American commentators who argue against the (real, I think) discrimination against Asian students in America's top universities. Asian kids are not smarter than white kids, but they, very often, have strong "family values" and, here in North America, many recent Asian immigrants have good educations and they want even better educations for their kids. It is never surprising to me when I see Asian kids winning academic prizes in numbers out of all proportion to their share of the population. They aren't smarter, but they work harder ... not because their parents push them, but because, every night, the parents are at the kitchen table making sure the kids do their homework and understand it. These kids live in homes that are full of books but devoid of video game consoles.

My  :2c:

 

[a_majoor]

I'm always interested in the question of culture and its influences. To me, it seems like the "Tiger Mom" has identified a process of cultural fusion, grafting some of the best parts fo Chinese/Asian cultures to the liberal culture of the West and leveraging it. After all, immigrants have every reason to want to succeed, and for the most part nations like America give them every opportunity to do so. That people from similar cultures and bacxkgrounds would tend to cluster together and follow the path forged by the early adopters (i.e. people who came to the country a few years to a decade before) is hardly astonishing, and that fact that most of the cultures that Tiger Mom has identified have strong family values means these traits can be passed on within a supportive family structure as well.

 

[CougarKing]

China unveils yet another new fighter prototype:

China's newest fighter jet J-16 revealed online
2014-01-05 (wantchinatimes.com)

J-16 fighter jet. (Photo Courtesy of Xinhuanet)

An image of the J-16, a 3.5-generation multi-role twin-seat fighter jet, was posted on the China-based Dingsheng military website Friday along with other types of Chinese fighter jets, such as the J-11 and J-15.

The J-16 jet shown online was believed to be a prototype of the jet fighter because it carries the serial number "1601."

It marked the first time that the warplane was shown in flying mode.

Military analysts speculated that the plane should still be in the test-flight stage.

Some Chinese netizens said the plane is undergoing tests at a People's Liberation Army (PLA) flight test and training base in Hebei Province in northern China.

The plane was developed by Shenyang Aircraft Corp. for the use of the PLA Navy's aviation corps.

A Shengyang Aircraft Corp. executive was quoted by Chinese media as saying recently that the J-16 could rival Russia's Su-35 fighter jet.

 

[Journeyman]

A Shengyang Aircraft Corp. executive was quoted by Chinese media as saying recently that the J-16 could rival Russia's Su-35 fighter jet

What looks like a photocopy of an Su-27 is to rival an Su-35?        op:  Watch and shoot

 

[Dissident]

Is that landing gear sturdy enough? Not an expert, just thought it looked a bit smaller than what's on an F18.

 

[CougarKing]

Is that landing gear sturdy enough? Not an expert, just thought it looked a bit smaller than what's on an F18.

Not sure. You can find the subject being discussed at length at aviation-themed forums.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


In other news, China continues to tighten its grip on the Spratlys in the South China Sea:

China Orders Foreign Fishing Vessels Out of Most of the South China Sea

January 7, 2014 (freebeacon.com)


New rules issued prior to near collision between U.S. warship and Chinese naval vessel

The new orders went into effect Jan. 1 after they were issued late November by Hainan island provincial government authorities.

Under the new regulations, all foreign fishing boats that transit into a new Hainan’s administrative zone in the sea—an area covering two-thirds of the 1.5 million square mile South China Sea—must be approved by Chinese authorities.

The new measures were imposed Nov. 29 and announced Dec. 3 in state media as part of a policy of enforcing Chinese fisheries law.

Chinese law states that any ships that violate the fishing regulations will be forced out of the zone, have their catch confiscated, and face fines of up to $82,600. In some cases, fishing boats could be confiscated and their crew prosecuted under Chinese law.

 

[a_majoor]

J-16 is Gen 3.5

The West and Russia are fielding Gen 5 fighters like the F-35 and the T-50, so the Chinese have a way to go yet...

 

[Edward Campbell]

Here, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions of the Copyright Act from the Financial Times, is an article about what I believe is the real battle between America and China (hint aircraft and carriers are only window dressing, they're there to keep the militaries occupied while the grownups do battle in the real world):

http://blogs.ft.com/ftdata/2014/01/10/china-and-us-battle-for-trade-leadership/

China and US battle for trade leadership

January 10, 2014

By Valentina Romei

Chinese exports increased by 4.3 per cent in December compared to the same month last year, while imports rose by 8.3 per cent. That gave China a total of $4.16tn in combined exports and imports in 2013, a figure that the US will find difficult to match. This leaves no doubt that China, the world’s second-biggest economy, is now the world’s biggest trading nation on an annual basis.

Chinese and US trade values were similar in 2012, slightly larger for China according to their respective national data but slightly bigger for the US according to the World Trade Organisation and the International and Monetary Fund.

On a rolling-12 month basis, China began to build up a clear lead in 2013, with both national and international data showing that the combined value of Chinese imports and exports exceeded that of the US.

China’s ascendency as a world trade power has been rapid since its accession to the World Trade Organisation in 2001. The country accounted for little more than 20 per cent of the total US trade value at the start of last decade.

This means that global trade –and global economic growth – are increasingly intertwined with the performance of the Chinese economy. China’s share of global trade went from 3 per cent at the start of the year 2000 to reach over 10 per cent in 2013. Over the same period the international weight of the US shrank: its imports went from a 17 per cent global share to just 12 per cent, while its exports fell from a 12 per cent global share to just above 8 per cent.

China had become the world’s largest merchandise exporter already back in 2008. Its lead over the US increased as US exports contracted sharply in 2009 and recovered more slowly than Chinese exports in the following years.

But the size of its imports allowed the US to retain the crown of global trade champion until last year. In 2007 the US value of exports was more than double that of China. That, however, changed dramatically after the shale gas revolution led to a big fall in US oil imports. US import growth has slowed and Chinese imports are catching up.

Countries around the world have become increasingly reliant on China as a trade partner, across a wide range of goods. On the import side, this is especially true of commodities: according to the international trade centre, China accounted for one-third to half of global imports of ores, oil seeds and grains, wood and copper in 2012. For exports, its strength is manufacturing: about half the global exports of silk, apparel, leather products and footwear originate in China.

However, according to the international trade data, the US still dominates trade in services. The value of its total services trade is about double that of China. The US is particularly strong in exporting services (the US exports about three times the value of Chinese services exports). Adding commercial services to merchandise trade should actually put the US back the first place in global trade (services trade data is reported later than that for the trade in goods, so we still need to wait to confirm this).

But there are reasons to think that the US will soon lose this leadership as well. Despite its strength, the US services trade dominance is fading quickly. In 2006, the US exported more than five-times the value of China’s service exports, but that fell to three-times last year. Similar reductions were seen in the imports of services.

When adding commercial services to the value of merchandise trade, the US still has a lead of about $400mn in the four quarters ending in the second quarter of 2013. That might seem large, but it is very small compared to the $1.7tn gap at the end of 2006.

.

From 1940 until 2012 the US was, always and without fail, the undisputed greatest trading nation in the world ... maybe the greatest trading nation ever. It's hard to compare the years 150, 750, 1450 and 1850 with 1950 and harder to compare Rome, Byzantium, China, Spain and Britain, in their global spheres, with America in this global era, but if America wasn't the greatest trading nation ever, it was amongst the top two or three. Now China has surpassed it ... we will see, a year from now, and the year after that, f China can maintain its lead in merchandise trade and improve its position in services.

This is a real war and the stakes are enormous.

 

[CougarKing]

From the mainland Chinese media: Beijing reveals its intentions to forcefully "retake" or seize Pagasa Island in the South China Sea (known as Zhong Ye island/中業島 to China) from the Philippines.

Pagasa island has a Philippine Marine garrison, an airstrip capable of supporting C130s as well as a year-round population of civilians.

China Daily Mail

Chinese troops to seize Zhongye Island back from the Philippines in 2014

Posted by chankaiyee2 ⋅ January 11, 2014

The following report is a translation from Chinese media. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily Mail.

Relying on US support, the Philippines is so arrogant as to announce in the New Year that it will increase its navy and air force deployment at Zhongye Island, a Chinese island that it has illegally occupied for years.

It will be an intolerable insult to China

According to experts, the Chinese navy has drawn a detailed combat plan to seize the island and the battle will be restricted within the South China Sea.

The battle is aimed at recovery of the island stolen by the Philippines from China.

There will be no invasion into Filipino territories.

A report in the Philippines Star confirmed the Philippines military buildup on the island.

Source: qianzhan.com “Sudden major move of Chinese troops this year to recover Zhongye Island by force” (summary by Chan Kai Yee based on the report in Chinese)

Plus more about Pagasa Island from an older LA Times article:

Squatters in paradise say it's job from hell

Staking a claim on isolated Pagasa Island for the Philippine government, inhabitants eventually 'go crazy.'
July 26, 2009|John M. Glionna

(...)

Pagasa may be a 75-acre speck of sand and rock, but that hasn't stopped a swarm of countries from battling over the hundreds of specks of sand and rock that make up the Spratlys, which may be the most disputed island chain on Earth.

So, in 2002, the Philippines decided to establish a small colony of hardy civilian settlers on the island, augmenting the two dozen military workers who earn special "loneliness pay" to live on the far-off spot -- and bolstering its claim that possession is nine-tenths of the law.

The result is sort of "Cast Away" meets Plymouth Rock.

In a nation where half the 90 million residents endure grinding poverty, Pagasa volunteers get free food and housing and guaranteed work. But there's also guaranteed boredom. Many who inhabit Pagasa consider the calendar their worst enemy. Others mark off time on the wall like stir-crazy convicts.

(...)

It's a sun-bleached settlement of 20 houses, a community center and a clinic run by a resident midwife. There are no stores and no roads, but a military landing strip knifes through the island's heart.

The population rises and falls. At its height, 300 lived there. Nowadays the total is 55 civilians, fewer than half a dozen of them women.

Pagasa even has its own mayor. Of course, gray-haired and garrulous Rosendo Mantis doesn't actually live on Pagasa; he keeps an office on the mainland and travels out to press the flesh and check on his constituency. Mantis is the island's chief promoter, but even he acknowledges that Pagasa is an acquired taste.

(...)

 

[tomahawk6]

Quite a technological feat for the PRC,that poses a significant threat that may be difficult to counter.

http://freebeacon.com/china-conducts-first-test-of-new-ultra-high-speed-missile-vehicle/

China’s military last week conducted the first flight test of a new ultra-high speed missile vehicle aimed at delivering warheads through U.S. missile defenses, Pentagon officials said.

The test of the new hypersonic glide vehicle was carried out Jan. 9 and the experimental weapon is being dubbed the WU-14 by the Pentagon, said officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

[CougarKing]

When I used to work/intern at one of the Canadian Consulates in China, the local Chinese staff/LES staff would often use the one computer work station designated for public use in order to scour Taobao's site, which is sort of like Ebay, for bargains on clothes and other products. They even got our Canadian vice-consul hooked that she spent a lot of time on that site after regular work hours, earning her the name "Taobao Queen".  ;D

But renting boyfriends? What'll they think of next? Rent-a-wife to show to your boss for career advancement?  :

And speaking of the cultural stigma behind the "sheng nu (剩女)/leftover women" mentioned in the article, here's an interesting foreign policy article on it.

National Post

China’s biggest online retailer Taobao has a ‘rent a boyfriend’ section

China has some interesting matchmaking and dating practices. There are love hunters who track down potential wives for China’s richest bachelors and there are “leftover women”, who are criticized for being over 27 and unmarried.

In some cases, when a male dies too young, families have “ghost marriages”, exhuming female corpses and marrying the pair.

So, it’s natural for many young Chinese to want to allay their parents’ anxiety over their single-dom. And now they can take to Alibaba-owned online retailer Taobao, tweets George Chen at South China Morning Post. That’s the equivalent of shopping for a date on Amazon or eBay.

People’s Daily reported that use of these services picks up around Single’s Day and Chinese New Year which is expected to fall around Jan. 30 this year. So we thought we’d have a look at just how Taobao’s rent a boyfriend feature works.

If you look to rent a boyfriend, 301 listings pop up and rates vary from 300 yuan a day to 8.80 yuan, though that gentleman hasn’t said if it’s an hourly rate:


(...)

 

[Edward Campbell]

Last year, at about this time, there were lots of articles about young women "renting boyfriends" to take home to Mom during Spring Festival.

(Note for those not familiar with China: Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) is the biggest travel season in the world ~ by comparison American Thanksgiving is child's play. Children, even those in their 30s, are expected to go home to visit their parents and grandparents ~ and, by god, tens, even hundreds of millions of them try.)

Anyway, as S.M.A. suggested many parents are having some difficulty understanding that their university educated daughters are more interested in their careers in the cities than in marrying a country bumpkin and having kids. And, as in North America, all the really suitable men in the big city are either taken or gay. So some women, to avoid arguments at home during Spring Festival, have taken to renting a boyfriend for a week or so ... telling Mom and Grandma that he's the boyfriend. Many (most) families do not encourage sleeping together before marriage so that works out well, for the young lady, although I did read a couple of stories last year where a gal offset part of the rental fee by offering sex in lieu of cash.

In some cities, parents who are dismayed at the sad state of their unmarried daughters have resorted to putting ads in local newspapers and even taking pictures to local parks, on Sundays, where young men gather and examine the girls on (unknowing) offer.

(I have a friend, an attractive young lady, in her early 30s, who is doing her PhD in Beijing and whose parents are quite upset that she has yet to find a "suitable" mate (i.e. not a foreigner and under 50) while she is holding out for someone "more like her" in attitude and education ~ and that someone is hard  to find. See again my remarks about all the good ones being taken or gay (or foreign).)

 

[CougarKing]

(I have a friend, an attractive young lady, in her early 30s, who is doing her PhD in Beijing and whose parents are quite upset that she has yet to find a "suitable" mate

Did she ever happen to be one of Dr. Pan Wei's graduate students at one time at Bei Da? Or perhaps one of Dr. Chu Shulong's grad students at Qinghua University?    ;D

 

[Edward Campbell]

Did she ever happen to be one of Dr. Pan Wei's graduate students at one time at Bei Da? Or perhaps one of Dr. Chu Shulong's grad students at Qinghua University? 

Nope, her tutor, whose name escapes me at the moment, is a septuagenarian‎ lady.

 

[CougarKing]

Beijing's announced plan to seize Philippine-held Pagasa Island in the Spratlys has only added to the plethora of China military expansionism paranoia in both the media of China's neighbours and Western media.

While I agree to an extent with ERC's earlier conclusion that trade is where the "real show" happens and the military dimension is just window dressing, hawks in Pacific nations from Japan to the Philippines to the US DC beltway would disagree.

Diplomat.com

How plausible is the Qianzhan‘s scenario?

China could easily achieve strategic surprise and seize Pag-asa Island. China could disguise an invasion force as a flotilla engaged in routine naval exercises in the South China Sea. In March-April last year, for example, China assembled a small flotilla to conduct combat training exercises in the South China Sea.

The flotilla comprised the modern amphibious assault ship Jinggangshan, two guided missile frigates and a guided missile destroyer. When the flotilla reached the waters surrounding Mischief Reef, Chinese state television showed pictures of People’s Liberation Army marines in hovercraft storming the beach of a Chinese-occupied islet supported by armed helicopters.

....

China’s seizure of Pag-asa Island would be an act of war. Currently, the Armed Forces of the Philippines would be unable to mount any meaningful response. Chinese destroyers and frigates would provide air defense if the Philippines scrambled jet fighters from the nearest air base on Palawan Island, over 480 km distant. The Philippine Navy would be woefully outgunned.

The Philippines would immediately seek consultations with the United States under their Mutual Defense Treaty to work out a response.

The political fallout from seizing Pag-asa would be a huge set back for Chinese diplomacy. ASEAN would likely adopt an uncompromising political position and demand the immediate withdrawal of Chinese forces. ASEAN would receive political backing from the international community. Chinese aggression could even be raised at the United Nation,; but China would veto any discussion by the Security Council.

(...)

As for this scenario, one can say it's too optimistic, since ASEAN's inability to come together as a Bloc was clearly shown when Cambodia and to a certain extent, Thailand, proved to be the tiebreakers resulting in a failure to collectively condemn China's conduct in the last few years. Thailand even buys Chinese equipment such as armour and some warships.

 

[CougarKing]

Corruption within the PLA...

Defense News

BEIJING — A top Chinese military officer has been exposed as owning dozens of homes, gold statues and crates of luxury liquor, reports said Thursday, in rare revelations of corruption in the country’s armed forces.

The revelations about Gu Junshan, a former lieutenant general and deputy logistics chief for the People’s Liberation Army believed to be under investigation, came as China’s leaders ramp up a much-publicized crackdown on official corruption.

“There is grave corruption in the military especially in the logistics sector, but revelations on the military’s graft fight is always kept off the radar for the sake of the military’s image,” said the Global Times newspaper, citing an “anti-graft expert” who did not want to be named.

Gu owned dozens of apartments in central Beijing, and his mansion in Puyang in the central province of Henan housed several gold art pieces, the magazine Caixin reported on Wednesday after a two-year investigation.

The home was modeled on the Forbidden City, the former imperial palace in Beijing, covered one hectare (2.5 acres) and was dubbed the “General’s Mansion” by locals, it said.

Officials seized “a gold boat, a gold wash basin and a gold statue of Mao Zedong” along with “crates of expensive liquor” on the premises, it added.

Gu, who joined the military in 1971 after finishing junior high school, began handling military business operations in Puyang in 1985 and rose over the next decade to oversee logistics in the area.

His career trajectory saw him become deputy chief of the PLA General Logistics department in 2009, and he “profited from the projects and land deals” in which he was involved, Caixin said.

Gu’s name disappeared from an official list of his logistics department in early 2012 and eventually the entire defense ministry website, and he left his post that year, it said.

A corruption probe has not been officially acknowledged, and was only obliquely referred to when National Defence University professor Gong Fangbin referred to corruption by Gu and his predecessor in an interview last August.

But widespread coverage of this week’s revelations in China’s strictly controlled media indicated that authorities were willing to have news of Gu’s alleged misdeeds publicized.

His brother — whose home was next to Gu’s in Puyang, with the two sharing a long basement “filled with expensive liquor” — was arrested in August for bribery.

The account follows extensive Chinese media reports about government officials who have come under investigation, and repeated pledges by President Xi Jinping to fight corruption high and low.

The leadership has issued a raft of bans over the past year ranging from fancy banquets to expensive gifts, in an effort to deter endemic graft — which causes widespread public anger — and impose frugality.

This week the military was required to purchase only domestic-brand vehicles as a way to save money, the official news agency Xinhua reported.

The Global Times cited analysts as saying that “2014 will see an even harsher clampdown.”

But critics say the anti-graft campaign does not include any system-wide measures, such as requiring public officials to declare their assets.

Since taking power as party chief and top military commander in November 2012, Xi has taken steps to ensure control of the PLA and stressed the need for PLA loyalty.

The son of a revered revolutionary, Xi is said to have closer links to the military than his predecessor Hu Jintao.

 

[a_majoor]

Beijing's announced plan to seize Philippine-held Pagasa Island in the Spratlys has only added to the plethora of China military expansionism paranoia in both the media of China's neighbours and Western media.

While I agree to an extent with ERC's earlier conclusion that trade is where the "real show" happens and the military dimension is just window dressing, hawks in Pacific nations from Japan to the Philippines to the US DC beltway would disagree.

Diplomat.com

As for this scenario, one can say it's too optimistic, since ASEAN's inability to come together as a Bloc was clearly shown when Cambodia and to a certain extent, Thailand, proved to be the tiebreakers resulting in a failure to collectively condemn China's conduct in the last few years. Thailand even buys Chinese equipment such as armour and some warships.

I would suggest this is more of Chinese "Unrestricted Warfare" in action, exploiting existing divides between nations in the region as well as throwing Washington off stride (although given the erratic performance of theis administration and "Smart Diplomacy"tm it is hard to tell). They offer trade as a carrot, make threats and bluster as a stick, leaving potential adversaries confused as to what is actually going on and unable or unwilling to respond in an effective and forceful manner.

 

[CougarKing]

"Window dressing" or not, only certain nations can afford to build, maintain and operate carriers.

A larger version of a Liaoning class currently being built?

China starts building second aircraft carrier: media

Agence France-Presse
Posted at 01/18/2014 9:54 PM | Updated as of 01/18/2014 9:54 PM


BEIJING - China has started constructing the second of four planned aircraft carriers, a top government official said according to media reports on Saturday.

The ship is under construction in the northeastern port of Dalian and will take six years to build, the reports said quoting Wang Min, Communist Party chief for Dalian's Liaoning province.

The country's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, was completed in September 2012 in a symbolic milestone for the country's increasingly muscular military.

Another two are in the pipeline, according to Wang, in a projection of power that could be seen as contradicting Beijing's long-stated policy of arming itself strictly for self-defence.

When the Liaoning went into service, Beijing and Tokyo were locked in a territorial row over the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea which China also claims and calls the Diaoyus.

The row continues to simmer, along with other sovereignty disputes with the Philippines and Vietnam.

Early this month a Japanese newspaper said China was overhauling its military structure in order to strengthen its attack capability and secure air and naval superiority in the South China and East China seas.

The Liaoning carrier conducted its maiden mission in the South China Sea in January.

It followed an incident in December in which a US warship was forced to avoid a collision with a Chinese naval vessel, prompting Washington to accuse China of being the aggressor.

© 1994-2014 Agence France-Presse

 

[a_majoor]

Something to ponder:

On the one hand we hear horror stories of Chinese AA/AD weapons like ballistic missiles designed to target carrier battle groups, new generations of attack submarines, hypersonic missiles etc. all with the primary purpose of neutralizing American Carrier Battle Groups.

Yet they are building a fleet of carriers of their own (which would presumably be even more vulnerable to US submarines, hypersonic weapons and so on, having far fewer carriers and less experience operating them).

And of course their various regional rivals are also building aircraft carriers, India has just received a full sized one from Russia, and the Japanese are building two more "Helicopter Destroyers" of their own. Apparently the ROK is also considering small aircraft carriers as well.