Is China Preparing a ‘Bloody Nose’ Attack on U.S. Aircraft Carriers?

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F/A-18 Hornets demonstrate air power over the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74). US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Ignacio D. Perez/Released

By Alex Lockie, [Business Insider](Is China Preparing a ‘Blood Nose’ Attack on U.S. Aircraft Carriers?)

• Chinadeployed “carrier killer” missilesafter warning the US Navy to stay out of the South China Sea, while releasing increasingly hot rhetoric that discusses killing US sailors.
• China has a powerful military stronghold in the South China Sea and plenty of missiles that can outrange and overwhelm US aircraft carriers.
• A prominent Chinese hawk suggested that sinking an aircraft carrier could break the US’ will in a kind of “bloody nose” attack.
• US experts agree that China’s new missiles pose a risk to carriers and that losing one would traumatize the nation.
• But the US has lost carriers before and, if China is at all serious about its rhetoric, could “bring down the wrath of God” on Beijing in a fight they’re not ready for, according to experts.

China responded to a recent challenge from the US Navy with the deployment of missiles purpose-built to sink aircraft carriers, and increasingly hot rhetoric from Beijing suggests that the US’ will to fight can be broken.

Chinese Rear Admiral Luo Yuan, an anti-US hawk who holds an academic rank shaping military theory, proposed a solution to the US and China’s simmering tensions in the South China Sea in a December speech: break the US’ spirit by sinking an aircraft carrier or two.

Dai Xu, a People’s Liberation Army Air Force colonel commandant and the president of China’s Institute of Marine Safety and Cooperation, suggested in December that China’s navy should ram US Navy ships sailing in the international waterway.

Zhang Junshe, a researcher at China’s Naval Military Studies Research Institute, gave a speech in January saying that if any conflict does break out between the US and China on the South China Sea, no matter the context, the US bears the blame.

Read more*:* China moves ‘ship killer’ missiles into firing range as US warships infuriate Beijing in the South China Sea