The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz has returned to the contested South China Sea, where it is conducting flight operations under the command of the Japan-based U.S. Seventh Fleet.
In a post highlighting the deployment, the U.S. Department of Defense shared images of EA-18G Growlers from VAQ-139 soaring above the ship, writing, “BRINGING THE HEAT!” and reaffirming that Nimitz is ready to project power and demonstrate lethal capabilities in the region.
The U.S. Navy maintains that Nimitz and its strike group provide a visible and combat-ready presence in the Western Pacific to reassure allies and uphold international maritime law.
BRINGING THE HEAT! 💨🔥
Aircraft assigned to VAQ-139 soar above the USS Nimitz while conducting flight operations in the South China Sea. Nimitz is deployed in the @US7thFleet, standing ready to project power and demonstrate lethal capabilities. pic.twitter.com/dm3YwzPyxS
— Department of Defense 🇺🇸 (@DeptofDefense) May 30, 2025
A spokesperson for the Seventh Fleet previously told the UK Defence Journal that the vessel’s presence underscores America’s commitment to freedom of navigation and regional stability. This comes at a time when tensions are escalating due to China’s increasingly assertive actions in the South China Sea.
China continues to claim sovereignty over the vast majority of the South China Sea through its so-called “nine-dash line,” despite overlapping claims from several Southeast Asian countries and a 2016 international tribunal ruling that found Beijing’s claims to have no legal basis. Chinese military construction on disputed islands, including runways and radar systems, has raised concerns among neighbouring nations and the international community.
Reacting to the Nimitz’s latest deployment, the People’s Liberation Army Southern Theater Command condemned the U.S. Navy’s actions, stating that the U.S. had “deliberately disrupted the situation in the South China Sea” and had “seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security … undermined regional peace and stability, and … violated international law and basic norms governing international relations.”
The United States has pushed back strongly against China’s narrative, asserting that “unlawful and sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea pose a serious threat to the freedom of the seas.” In a broader policy statement, the U.S. government affirmed its position that “freedoms of navigation and overflight, free trade and unimpeded commerce, and freedom of economic opportunity for South China Sea littoral nations” are essential to regional and global stability.
“As long as some countries continue to claim and assert limits on rights that exceed their authority under international law, the United States will continue to defend the rights and freedoms of the sea guaranteed to all,” the U.S. government added, reiterating that no nation should be “intimidated or coerced into giving up their rights and freedoms.”
China is deliberately causing trouble with unwarranted bully boy tactics towards the countries who have territorial claims in the South China Sea. Just like the Trump’s tactics in trying to rename the the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America or wanting Greenland or Canada. In China’s case they are physically wrecking coral reefs, building new islands and causing tension especially with the Philippians. Time for the rest of the world to say stop it before there is a serious diplomatic incident. These waters are not Chinese and shipping has the right to navigate them.
Don’t let TDS get the better of you.
The fact is this is a freedom of navigation issue.
Correct. Therefore, this has nothing to do with Trump after all.
as it was the last time
The best way to shut up a bully is to call their bluff.
All bullies are all mouth.
Unfortunately China is not mouth, china is building a huge navy faster than any other nation.. it’s out building the US by a huge amount ( infact it’s putting the same tonnage of the RN into the sea every couple of years or so).. to chinas world view the U.S. is the bully and its planning and saying exactly what it’s going to do.
Unfortunately the West and china have completely overlapping red lines and china is never ever backing down over Taiwan…infact it’s given the US the timeframe it had better back down by.. China has said war after 2027 and it completely and utterly means every word.
Agree. China will invade Taiwan before the end of 2027 unless a diplomatic or political solution to their unification is agreed. President Xi has declared this and he means it.
Chinese warship (and all other shipbuilding) capacity is 40x that of Americas. They are adding the same tonnage of warships and auxiliaries as the RN and Marine Nationale (French navy) every 3-4 years.
The only obvious conclusion China considers is a victory Vs America through attrition.
They will have a brutal very bloody war, take Taiwan, attack South Korea, Japan, Phillipines, Guam, Australia and possible New Zealand. Make territorial demands on Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, Phillipines and Japanese island territories.
The question is. In the long run can they endure a war of attrition Vs USA and it’s allies? Possibly.
Any warships sunk will certainly be replaced faster than the USN.
However what is NOT considered is operational effectiveness of the PLAN. They have zero combat experience, unlike USA and it’s allies, they have no apparent expertise of C3 over a hugely complex battlefield and massive regional conflict.
The Chinese forces have no experience of dissimilar combat. Unlike the USA and allies which undergo exercises and training at a very high level.
Unfortunately the other aspect China will probably lose because would be the gigantic qualitative and quantitative submarine advantage the USA and allies have over the PLAN.
You can guarantee on day one of war there will be unrestricted submarine warfare. Every dockyard and airport in China will be targeted. Any shipping being constructed will be hit and dockyard infrastructure destroyed.
China will be cut off from resources they rely upon to maintain their war industries. Only able to get supplies over land routes from Russia and North Korea. Land routes that are few and easily targeted and disrupted.
We live in interesting times.
The problem the US faces in the western pacific is that its forces are way more than a tripwire, made up of irreplaceable strategic platforms it cannot afford to loss, but is isolated well away from the bulk of U.S. power and is not so large that so that it will inevitably be overwhelmed and destroyed by the PLAN unless it has time to run for it.. essentially if china did go for strategic surprise and it did not go very well for the US it will loss 20% of its deployable carrier force before it can concentrate and begin the main event.
You have to remember that the US started deploying permanent carrier to Japan in 2008..at that point the PLAN was a very small regional force that could not even really contemplate out fighting 1 US carrier.. now it’s got the most number of modern large surface combatants of any navy, has 60 very good electric boats and 10 SSN, backed by an insane number of good conventional ballistic missiles..and a 2000 strong airforce, this will overwhelm any major bases in the western pacific..and is by any measure well placed to give everything the USN could deploy a nasty run..5-6 carrier battle groups, 6 amphibious groups and backup is essentially the minimum needed to fight the PLAN in the china seas..
This means that the 1 deployed carrier is essentially facing 10 times the combat power it is when it was first permanently deployed to Japan… but if the U.S. took the pragmatic option to withdraw it out of the first island chain to ensure its carrier force is not defeated in detail, it will send a message to china that would encourage china to attack.. but if China is planning to attack anyway they may as well withdraw it to preserve their ability to concentrate their carriers without loss.
I think you are over estimating the Chinese submarine force. Made up of SHANG classes of diselelectric boats and their 10 SSNs are generations behind the best in the west.
Sea Wolf, Virginia and Astute class submarine will have a field day.
When HMS QE carrier battle group approached Chinese waters the PLAN attempted to embarrass the RN by deploying 3-5 subs in an ambush position in front of the carrier.
They were detected by the accompanying Astute class at considerable range and firing solutions plotted. Each of those subs could have been sunk at will.
Plus the type 23 frigates had them plotted, tracked and zeroed in too.
There is a massive qualitative and quantitative submarine advantage.
As for China’s 2000 modern aircraft, who knows?? Most are based on Russian technology which thus far has proven utterly rubbish over Ukraine. The more modern stealthy aircraft J20, Js35s etc are coming online in ever larger numbers and may or may not be a valid threat to American and allies air superiority.
Only China can decide it’s fate. They could choose peace and co-operation but Pres Xi has already committed them to war before the end of 2027 sadly.
The allies know this and will be vigilant to that threat.
If I was America’s president I’d arm Taiwan to the max and give them enough weaponry to make any invasion ridiculously costly to China.
To be honest MR bell I’m more thinking that the US carrier and the base it sits in is likely to become a day one smoking hole via mass ballistic missile and cruise missile attack.. the Chinese will undoubtedly choose their day one when they have the US carrier banged to rights… unfortunately by the nature of it they will be picking the time and date.. which is why strategically if you removed the messaging and other Geopolitical pressure, the US should remove its Japanese based Carrier and the only carriers it has in the western pacific should be out to sea surrounded by their CBG so they can immediately run to the Guam area ready for the concentration of the USN.
No , I do not think he’s Overestimating , the PLAN Submarine Forces just by it’s sheer numbers , numerically the PLAN Submarine is a major threat…
It’s more complicated then that quite frankly in a real time War scenario ,
PLA boats won’t be operating alone , any Carrier Task Group would have to deal with PLAN Surface Groups of their own , fight in a Contested Air Space filled with PLANAF , PLAAF air assets … Plus the PLA(PLARF) have a massive missile arsenal that any Carrier Task Group will most definitely have to contend with at the off set , by no means a walk in a park gentleman.
While the SW , Virginias and the best looking ASTUTE are extremely capable platforms they use their edge in speed and layer stealth in shallow waters such as in SCS … not to mention availability. The USN Submarine Force is spread across the globe ( the tyranny of distance ) with many of their boats sidelined due schedule maintenance. Logistics will be an issue , if you’re going to sink over 50 boats your going to need somewhere to reload , today you just won’t be able to reload a Boat under a safe haven ( I can assure you the PLA will be targeting Logistics Hubs ).
No question Submarine Technology , Warfare has been a major achilles heel for PLAN for most part up to the mid 2015s , that’s when PLAN began shifting its priorities to address this glaring issue.
The boats that the PLAN deployed to shallow HMS QE Task Group weren’t their high end tier boats … they were their least capable types
Their Type 039B/Cs AIP boats are capable platforms also the PLAN have received an entirely New Type 093 ( “SHANG” ) variant the 093B
rumor has it that a batch of 8 boats have been built in a span of 3 years with a possible 2nd batch of 8 on the books. It is also rumored that construction has begun on their first Type 095 boat.
The PLA have an industrial complex and financial capability to none , that even out paces the US right now.
Have you guys heard about the Monroe Doctrine or the term the Empire of Bases. I wonder, how many Chinese bases do you think there are in, say, the West Indies or the Gulf of Mexico. And just look how many the Yanks have got in SE Asia, Japanese, South Korea etc. I know the narrative amongst many is to demonise the Chinese and they are no doubt now being the big bully in the region, much like the Israelis in Palestine, but it is more their backyard than the Yanks. We need to keep a sense of perspective.
It’s not about wrong or right Paul, it’s about geostrategic and winners losses and wars in which no one wins. Personally I don’t give two shits if Taiwan is part of China or independent..essentially that’s a China Taiwan problem.. the issue i have is that fight will take out 60-80% of the semiconductor production on the planet. Crashing all modern industrial capacity across the planet.. it will also mean that China will cut the major sealanes to Japan essentially isolating Japan and leaving at to Chinese tender mercies…it will also mean china has cracked the first island china which is one of the key geostrategic impediments to its expansion because of those key facts the US, will intervene in any Chinese invasion of Taiwan, because of that china will probably attack the U.S. first to try and knock out its west pacific military infrastructure. The rest of the west needs to be concerned about this because the US is a NATO member and any war between the US and china will lead to china attacking the US mainland.. when that happens it will trigger article five and NATO will be at war with china…then Russia, Iran and North Korea will get involved and the world will be plunged into a years long world war..that even if the west wins will shatter our economies for decades..if we are unlikely it goes nuclear and civilisation along with 90%+ of the human race dies…
So it really is our worry… personally I think the west had two choices
1) massively rearm and enter a Cold War with china..so it new it could never win..then wait of the inevitable end.
2) essentially tell china it can have tiawan set a new set of mutually agreed red lines and rearm to a reasonable level to keep the peace..
Unfortunately the west did neither and now it’s all likely to go down the toilet as the west tries to bluff out number 1 without the massive overwhelming force needed.
China needs to be hit economically; that means taking a leaf out of the Chinese playbook and blocking sites like Temu, to begin denuding China of valuable western cash.
Step up and bring-in companies like Amazon, the supermarkets and niche suppliers like for example, Hornby – give them the good news – your imports from China are going to be hit by tax to such an extent that they will be noncompetitive; they’ll smell the coffee and China will feel the hit.
Now, act in common with our EU partners (oh, wait, we left) but approach the EU through NATO and explain why it is for the good of our future grand-children that China be faced down now.
Agree. They remain an exports based economy. China was in an extremely difficult situation when Trump imposed massive tariffs, Trump however backed down to a max tariff of 50% because the US consumer began to complain about availability of cheap Chinese plastic toys and the like.
Unbelievably the western nations continue to fuel a massive budget surplus for China that is funding their gigantic military expansion and threats against their neighbours.
100%
With the added bonus that the families of ChiCom military will also feel the and begin to undermine their morale: why fight for this regime.
However, that brings us around to economics and the ability to help nations escape the Chinese debt trap; that has to be an economic priority.
In Sri Lanka last month and Chinese money is insidious. That has to be stopped.
How? Encourage the nations to default on Chinese debt and offer them fair terms. Hit the ChiComs squarely in the knackers until they turn on their malevolent system of government.
Unfortunately I don’t believe for a second the Chinese will..people really do underestimate the strength of Chinese nationalist sentiment..these guys are not your godless international communists..the are nationalist communists..essentially the best brainwashing from both communism and national socialism.. we call them communists but the are actually a heady mix of communist and fascist. The Chinese population believes and the small percentage that don’t pretend they do…
The whole Chinese war book is based on essentially the embracing of mutual mindless suffering, knowing that their structures create a so society that is essentially designed to take insane levels of suffering and keep on cheering…and it works.. Mao killed 2 million through starvation and 125 million suffered through mass persecution and yet the Chinese consider him close to the son of god.
Xi Jinping is literally the prime example of why you will not out suffer the Chinese..he is not a papered politician who will give in he is the living embodiment of chinas will and even want to suffer…. his parents were arrested as traitors to Mao..as a child he and all his brothers and sisters were threatened with death..they were then cast out onto the city streets, his sister committed suicide, he was them swept up in the cultural revolution as and transported as a child serf to a village to work the Fields, he escaped back to the city and was then arrested and spent the last of his childhood and early adulthood hood doing hard Labour in a prison/re-education camp.. after being “reeducation he walked back to the village he was assigned as a peasants with nothing more than a box of books.. he them worked the land and kept on applying to become a member of the communist party..because of his history he was turned down over and over..but finally he managed to get sponcer ( who had been a friend of his parents) and he was admitted to the communist party..later he was sent to university as a peasant student to study communism… after years of doing all the jobs in the provinces no one wanted he climbed the top of the communist ladder…but in doing so he completely transformed the leadership of the communist party..he owns it’s central committee and he has then used that ownership to tighten the communist party grip on Chinese society..literally everything and everyone reports to him and he has total direct control of the CCP, military and security forces… even if the population somehow got so pissed with suffering it tried to do something.. it would be faced with 100million members of the CCP, a brutal 5 million strong internal security force and a 3 million strong political warfare force…
The sort of point of this is the whole of Chinese society has essentially been created to suffer a catastrophic war and keep ticking… even its leader is some hard as nails politically brainwashed extremist… the question is really around the pampered democracies of the west that are only use to sending out soldiers to die in low numbers on a far field and will take down any political party that makes them suffer in any real way.. can those nations really survive seeing hundreds of thousands of the citizens die…see their economies collapse and spend 30-50% of their entire wealth on fighting a war that will go on for years and years… or will they capitulate when national service, rationing, industrial destruction and a general collapse in living standards kick in…
As ever Jonathan, you just keep showing why you are such a valued read. Thankyou.
the Shangri-la Dialogue Is coming out with some very interesting geopolitical titbits..
1) macron has come out and said Europe and the pacific democracies need to work together and not become collateral in a U.S. China conflict.he has said that the west failure in keeping Russia out of Ukraine has had a massive impact on European credibility and the world order and that it’s essentially paved the way to a U.S. China war.
The U.S. speech was very interesting:
1) the U.S. has said.. Europe needs to stay in Europe and let the US support ( AKA sell stuff) to the pacific democracies.. so Europe needs to piss off back to Europe and stay there while the big boys play..
2) the U.S. is telling the pacific democracies they need to match what is now being asked of European NATO ( 5% spend on GDP) and ohh yes we have lots of stuff you can buy.
3)china will not push the US out and the US will fight china in the western pacific if it does try.
4) the U.S. considers it a real and likely danger that china will initiate a war and invade Taiwan
5) while making it very clear that on the same day they placed 50% steel tariffs to target Chinese steel and made a speech about defending against china they were most definitely not and never would try to strategically isolate or strangle china…( off course they are…who would not)
The many of the smaller south East Asian pacific nations essentially gave the US and west the middle finger
The Malaysian Priminister essentially said
1) we need to work together more as a western pacific collective
2) the most important bit of new was the ASEAN-GCC-China Summit in which the south East Asian countries, China and the Middle East all promised to work better together.
3) that south east Asia would be actively non aligned ( essentially telling the US to stick it)
The Chinese speech was the most telling and potentially chilling of all
They did not essentially turn up ( sent minor officials) and made no statement at all.. when they usually us it to counter the US dialogue.. this is really bad, it may mean that china has nothing else to say to the US…..I cannot really overstate how potentially dangerous that could be.
All in all it was a shit feast and a great big step forward to a U.S. china war.
Hmmm…ChiCom aspirations/behavior/rhetoric are quite reminiscent of Japanese Empire behavior in the late 1930s. Prediction: The next round of dispute will involve multiple parties employing very large sticks. Ultimate result: A very quiet I-P for multiple decades (perhaps a century or two or three).
Rationale for “Golden Dome” programme is becoming intuitively obvious. Vanishingly small chance of success w/in required timeframe.
Agree. Unless the USA has a system ready to come into fruition and service PDQ then it’s inevitable that any US China war before end of 2027 will involve missile strikes ( hopefully just conventionally armed) against the US mainland and US territory and bases.
I’m not sure about a very quiet I-P after.. what we learned from WW1 is unless you essentially utterly destroy your enemies and conquer them..then any peace treaty is essentially just a time to polish off grudges ready for round 2 and there is no way on earth either china and the US are utterly destroying and conquering the other and if by a miracle one side looked like it could win a war to destruction across a 10,000km sea against a peer superpower it would simply trigger MAD..both sides will simply inflict maximum pain until one population gives up and signs on the dotted line..then holds a grudge until they decided to start round 2…usually in a couple of decades….
Jonathon,
If general warfare commences bwtween the PRC and the US, the key phrase in your post is “it would simply (ultimately) trigger MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction).” Firmly believe the US retains a sufficient arsenal of nukes to eliminate both the C and NK components of the CRINK alliance, before exiting history. The Indians will target the ChiComs and Pakistanis, and in turn, be targeted by the same. Absolutely convinced the Israelis will eliminate I, and possibly making a substantial dent in R. That would leave ENATO w/ the task of removing R from the board. Finis.
…possibly make… 🙄
Apologies if someone’s mentioned the points that follow. Only had time for a very quick scim of the comments.
1. China is spending the equivalent of some developed countries annual defence budget on cyber.
It’s doing this because cyber is part of its integrated war plan.
2. I am convinced that COVID was a dry run by China to trial a biological weapon and to determine the extent
to which it degrades an enemy.
3. China’s recapture of Taiwan will begin with a call by the Taiwan government to send humanitarian forces to
help with a national emergency and deny the US and others a cassus bellei. Or a scenario involving an exclusion
zone. Or, some kind of false flag operation. Or, a combination of all of the above.
4. Given that the Democrats have already commenced impeachment proceedings on Capitol Hill. It’s certain that Trump
will be a very diminished person, by the latter part of his term. Effectively rendering the US Government unable to respond.
Even without his opponents efforts, it’s obvious Trump is declining sharply. And this is a man who already has zero interest
in anything but himself and his legacy.
I don’t believe there’s anything credible to stop China. Unless events conspire to throw a massive spanner in the works.
I find this profoundly saddening.