For a while now, the Chinese government has taken countermeasures. On October 31, China’s two major aircraft carriers, the Liaoning and Shandong, conducted their first-ever joint training exercises in the South China Sea. Chinese state media called them “the strongest surface fleet in Asia.” Foreign media pointed out that this was likely a display of military strength, aimed at containing the Philippines and countering U.S. and Japanese military presence in the Asia-Pacific. Taiwan’s military experts noted that, despite these advances, China’s aircraft carriers still can’t match the capabilities of the U.S. Navy’s carrier strike groups, due to limitations in aircraft capacity, takeoff methods, and the lack of overseas supply bases.
