In warning to US, China fires 'aircraft-carrier killer' missiles

In response to US aerial activities in a 'no-fly zone' in South China Sea

China’s latest volley of missile launches into the world’s most hotly contested body of water served as a warning to two key US targets: aircraft carriers and regional bases.

The missiles launched into the South China Sea on Wednesday included the DF-21D and DF-26B, the South China Morning Post reported, citing a person close to the People’s Liberation Army. Those weapons are central to China’s strategy of deterring any military action off its eastern coast by threatening to destroy the major sources of US power projection in the region.

“China is signalling to the US, its allies and partners that China has an answer to America’s aircraft-carrier strike groups, an answer that is always available and not dependent on deployment schedules,” said Carl Schuster, an adjunct faculty member of Hawaii Pacific University’s diplomacy and military science program and a former operations director at US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center. “In effect, China is saying, ‘If the US puts two carriers in the South China Sea, we send aircraft carrier-killer missiles there.’”

The launches show the US the growing cost of any armed conflict, with a high-profile reminder of China’s increasing arsenal of medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. This is challenging American military superiority in Asia for the first time since World War II. President Xi Jinping rolled out the new PLA Rocket Force as part of a military parade in October, showcasing a capability that researchers at the University of Sydney warned could wipe out US bases in the “opening hours of a conflict.”

A US defence official who asked not to be identified told Bloomberg News that China fired four medium-range ballistic missiles during a series of military exercises this week. 

They landed in the sea between China’s southern Hainan Island and the disputed Paracel chain near Vietnam, the official said, not far from where US carriers conducted drills in recent weeks to back up the Trump administration’s decision to challenge Beijing’s sovereignty claims.

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