Hawkish Chinese Officer Suggests Sinking Aircraft Carriers to Intimidate US

In widely circulated speech, well-known firebrand claims Americans would back down in face of heavy casualties

The Navy's forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the forward-deployed Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Stethem steam alongside ships from the Republic of Korea Navy in the waters east of the Korean Peninsula on Oct. 18, 2017. Kenneth Abbate/U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS

Luo Yuan, a Chinese military academic ranked as a rear admiral in the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), has claimed that the United States could be brought to heel amid current disputes if two of its aircraft carriers were struck and destroyed by Chinese missiles.

In a Dec. 20 speech delivered in Shenzhen, China, Luo said that the ongoing Sino–U.S. trade war was “definitely not simply friction over economics and trade,” but constituted a “prime strategic issue,” Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA) reported Dec. 23.