The Time blog reports:
The top U.S. commander in the Pacific says the Chinese military has developed and begun deploying a new missile capable of sinking U.S. aircraft carriers. Adm. Robert Willard says the DF-21D is designed to be fired into space as a ballistic missile, homing in on its target as it returns to Earth. A top Pentagon official warned earlier this month that such Chinese weapons “threaten our primary means of projecting power: our bases, our sea and air assets, and the networks that support them.” Anything that seriously threatens U.S. aircraft carriers in the western Pacific calls into question the Pentagon’s entire war plan for defending Taiwan against aggression from the Chinese mainland.
Such carefully-calibrated chatter is all part of a sizing up that has been underway for several years between the U.S. and China. Apparently, there’s a rule in some quarters that the top two major powers must be foes, even if they’re major business partners dependent on one another. While that’s certainly true on the gridiron, it may make less sense when it comes to the globe writ large, with both players nuclear-armed.
