Are the Chinese sending a very specific message to make us more cautious about rushing carriers in like the cavalry to rescue the Taiwanese should the Chinese attack? Is Peking buying time to conquer Taiwan?
The refusal by China to allow the carrier task force to enter Hong Kong as planned added to my sense of the message their singing telegram sent.
Well, we know that tune and hummed a few bars ourselves:
After being blocked, the Kitty Hawk strike group, which includes two missile cruisers and six guided missile destroyers, changed course and headed for its home port of Yokosuka, Japan, because of bad weather, rather than turn back to Hong Kong.
A senior Pentagon official said later that the Kitty Hawk and its warships transited through the Taiwan Strait on the way back to Japan, in a deliberate statement to China, which in the past opposed U.S. warships traveling through the strait where Chinese and Taiwanese forces are faced off.
Oh, and in regard to the Chinese military maneuvers held, the article notes that the Chinese exercise was off of Hainan island. Which is "near" Taiwan the way Galveston, Texas is near Tampa, Florida.
