[Zhang Fei]

[It’s important that the US Navy show the world, and China, that they do not have the guts or the capability to challenge the US Navy at sea.]

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I think it’s more that we need to show China that it can’t designate large areas of the Pacific Ocean its inland waters and expect everyone to fall in line. The Chinese are welcome to send their ships to the vicinity of the continental US. But they never do, since we’ve never actually claimed anything outside of our 12-mile territorial waters as American territory.

[Mariner]

“But they never do, since we’ve never actually claimed anything outside of our 12-mile territorial waters as American territory.”

They don’t because they are unable to support a battle group that far from their own shores.