Tensions Rise: Today (July 28, 2020) Chinese warships sink U.S. ships in SOUTH CHINA SEA

, During a long war with China, the U.S. Navy probably wouldn’t be able to work fast enough to fix or replace the ships the Chinese sank or damaged. That’s not alarmism. Rather, it’s the cool conclusion of two rather boring studies by industrial and military groups in recent months. After decades of government neglect, American shipyards barely can build and repair the ships the U.S. fleet already has, to say nothing of the additional ships it would need—quickly—to keep fighting a determined, high-tech foe with major industrial resources of its own. Heart-rates surely spiked across Washington, D.C. on Wednesday when Paul McLeary, a reporter for Breaking Defense, got his hands on a draft report by U.S. Marine Corps commandant David Berger. Berger, a major military reformer, has been studying the U.S. shipbuilding landscape as part of his wide-ranging effort to transform the Marine Corps into a lighter, more mobile force that can range across the Pacific Ocean, occupying small islands in order to fire long-range anti-ship missiles at Chinese vessels. If the United States and China got into a serious, long-lasting fight, the American fleet would start to shrink as ships got sunk or damaged, Berger warned. The Chinese fleet on the other hand would be in a better position to make good its losses. China’s claims of South China Sea (SCS) ownership are illegal, but Beijing’s hyper-nationalistic officials increasingly encourage its forces to attack U.S. Navy ships operating lawfully there. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) appears to be calling for war—a war it may well get. But it is a war that will not stay confined to that body of water, and a war that could ultimately end with regime change in Beijing. One People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officer recently exhorted PLA Navy vessels to ram and sink U.S. Navy ships conducting freedom of navigation operations in the SCS. Another called for the sinking of two U.S. aircraft carriers and killing upward of 10,000 U.S. sailors to force the U.S. from these hotly contested waters. Some might argue such belligerence from senior PLA officers does not reflect China’s official policy or is simply Information Warfare, but these defenses are disingenuous. None of the senior officers has been publicly chastised by the PRC for inciting war, and the PLAN is engaging in increasingly-dangerous actions across the SCS.