While “it would be wrong to call China’s aircraft carriers mere status symbols without any combat function at all,” Beijing is “more likely to deploy their fighters in an air defense role rather than strike deep into an opponent’s territory,” Mr. Sweeney writes in a 2020 Defense Priorities analysis.
Though nuclear uncertainties, coupled with China’s gray-zone activities and “ham-fisted bullying” of its neighbors, tend to discourage constructive engagement, the two nations should continue to work toward engagement anyway, Mr. Sweeney says.
This could include military-to-military exchanges and other confidence-building measures that could “create a pathway for deescalating a crisis if one begins,” Mr. Sweeney says. “I’d still very much like us to have perspective – and for us not to go too far down the road into unnecessary confrontation.”
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