China Extends Reach into Med

In case you missed it, the Chinese ran one of its two aircraft carriers close to Taiwan in a display of military might intended to intimidate the island with no aircraft carriers.  The Taiwanese probably don't care much about it, since China has been trying to intimidate them by every means for the past 75 years.

But the Chinese are also having exercises with the Russians in the Eastern Mediterranean, which is not their sea to be in.  They are close enough to the Russian bases in Syria for everyone to take note.  It was the first time since 2015.  That probably got a lot of attention in the capitals of the Mideast and Europe.

These were live fire exercises ( they shoot real bullets and rockets ) but the term used to protect the event is proclaimed to keep any other nation from observing exactly what is going on.  Live fire is used often in the Russian and Chinese exercises to limit close up views of the ships and tactics being employed.  It claims territory for a short time while the exercises are run, and then cedes it back to the international community when they are over.  They do this for the good of everyone else in the area, but not because they are particularly safety conscious.  They have dominion over the territory for a brief time, and partial secrecy over what actually goes on during the exercises, in case they aren't very successful for reasons they don't want others to know about.

The exercises will not go unnoticed in the US where ships that launch cruise missiles into Syria would be facing some joint forces the next time they decide to deter the Syrian leadership from using chemical weapons.  I can't imagine why the Chinese have an interest in preserving the capability to kill children with chemical weapons, but the Russians certainly do.  In spite of their assurances that Assad got rid of them all, he continues to find more lethal varieties to use on his own people.  The U.S. is not going to be put off by these joint exercises and both Russia and China must know it.    They just want to ratchet up the tension, using Syria as stalking horse.  On all fronts that is a very bad idea.