The Nuclear Angle

Does China get their panties in a twist when our Navy sails the Yellow Sea because the Chinese want to build a bastion for their ballistic missile nuclear subs?

The Chinese sure do get excitable when we exercise our carriers west of South Korea. Is it because China wants the Yellow Sea as part of a bastion strategy for protecting their SSBNs (ballistic missile nuclear submarines)?

As China builds a base for nuclear subs on Hainan Island, does this indicate that China has a long-range ambition of controlling (or just dominating) the land masses around the South China Sea and not just the South China Sea in order to have a better bastion?

That would surely explain their unease over our fleet sailing in the South China Sea (and mapping the sea floor).

Not that the new military capability to enforce old Chinese notions of being able to do what they want off the coast of China isn't the basis of their more aggressive actions. Well, and the oil, too. But the nuclear angle is added incentive for Peking, no?

China's nuclear subs so far haven't worked out so well. So I haven't given them too much thought. But they're getting better. And keeping them on a short leash rather than patrolling near Hawaii might be more comforting for the Chinese leaders.