As a warning to two main U.S. targets: aircraft carriers and regional bases, China’s new volley of missile launches into the world’s most fiercely contested body of water. The missiles that were fired on Wednesday into the South China Sea included the DF-21D and DF-26B, the South China Morning Post said, citing an individual close to the People’s Liberation Army. These weapons are essential to China’s policy to discourage any military action off its east coast by threatening to kill the region’s main sources of U.S. power projection.

The launches show the US the cost of any military war, with a high-profile reminder of China’s the arsenal of ballistic missiles of medium and intermediate ranges. President Xi Jinping rolled out the new PLA Rocket Force as part of a major military parade in October, showing a technology that is challenging American military dominance in Asia for the first time since World War II. Researchers at Sydney University cautioned last year that Chinese missiles could wipe out U.S. bases in the “opening hours” of any battle.

A US defence official who asked not to be named told Bloomberg News that during a series of military exercises this week, China launched four medium-range ballistic missiles. They landed in the sea between China’s southern Hainan Island and the contested Paracel chain near Vietnam, the official said, not far from where US carriers have been conducting exercises in recent weeks to back up the decision by the Trump administration to challenge Beijing’s claims to sovereignty.

Chinese Ministry

The Chinese Ministry of Defense reiterated its assertion that on Thursday the exercises were not aimed at any country, without mentioning the launch of the missile. Still, Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesman for the ministry, accused “some US politicians” of seeking to escalate a confrontation between the two nations, telling a briefing in Beijing that China was “not scared.”

Chinese military released a statement on Thursday saying it has expelled a U.S. Guided-missile navy destroyer “trespassed” into waters close to the Paracel Islands. The missile tests seems target at U.S. consumers, rather than a domestic audience, with news on the highly censore internet of the country mainly restrict to international media outlets. Earlier this week, China protested the flight of an American U-2 spy plane near the Eastern China Sea exercise zone, presumably to gather information about the capacities of the region.

While the two nuclear-armed powers have many opportunities to avoid a confrontation. Also, as the U.S. and its allies try to push back against a more assertive Beijing. The possibility of escalation is that the US has conducted a series. It is of military drills across the area in recent weeks and approve a historic fighter jet sale to Taiwan. Also, against the backdrop of a national election president Donald Trump has sought to concentrate on China.

US Navy Report

Recent South China Sea exercises by the U.S Navy included last month’s joint operations. It is by the USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike groups. Also, this month’s separate drills by the Reagan. Such moves followed the July 13 announcement by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. Thus, clarifying U.S legal opposition to Chinese claims over much of a critical shipping path. Also, parts of which also claim by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

The real danger is a U.S China dispute over Taiwan that escalates into a nuclear war. It is partially because the DF-26 be arm. It is with both conventional. also, nuclear warheads. Thus, said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program. Thus, at the California Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

In recent weeks, China has fired at least another DF-26 missile. It is in what the Global Times newspaper of the Communist Party. Thus, described as a response to U.S. carrier operations. Earlier on Twitter, the paper had announced its “carrier-killer” missiles — attracting a terse rebuttal from the US. Navy, which notes the warships “all there” anyway.

Missile Tests

Although China’s ability to sink a moving warship has yet to be proven. The cost of losing a $10 billion aircraft carrier, the troops and equipment on board. Also, all the American military prestige they serve — will be unparalleled. The challenge is leading Pentagon planners to find less obvious forms of projecting power. Thus, with a study by the Department of Internal Defense recommending the carrier fleet. It is of the country to nine from now on, Defense News reported.

The PLA’s missile arsenal is one of the factors behind America’s changing security posture in Asia,. Also, with the Pentagon moving B-1 bombers to and from Guam. Thus, where they are more vulnerable to attack. Concern about the danger has led to the U.S. decision to withdraw. It is from the Treaty with Russia on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Weapons. Also, to pursue tripartite arms talks with China.

Even before the launches this week, China had ramped up ballistic missile tests secretly. Thus, in an apparent effort to gage its operational capabilities. Last year the nation launched over 100 ballistic missiles. It is more than three times the previous total for North Korea. Kyodo News reported in February, citing people familiar with the matter. The DF-21D can fly more than 1,500 kilometres (900 miles), while the DF-26 can carry. It is an estimated 4,000 kilometres of warheads, long enough to get to Guam.

There are “serious concerns” about whether China’s carrier-killers actually work. It states by Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment. It is for International Peace in Stanton with the Nuclear Policy Program. The latest tests could provide an opportunity for the US to better understand its efficiency.