The United States Navy is certainly the pre-eminent ‘blue water’ navy, although the readiness of crew and ships to be fighting fit is somewhat in question. However, while the Chinese Navy—despite its numerical superiority—is mostly composed of smaller vessel in the destroyer and light cruiser category, and a handful of nuclear powered fast attack submarines, limiting China’s ability to project power deep into the Pacific Ocean or Indian Ocean, it does have a sizable fleet of air-independent propulsion (AIP) attack subs that are just as quiet as anything operated by the USN or British Royal Navy, highly capable anti-ship supercruise missiles (the YJ-12 series), and a growing and presumably reliable ICBM and SLBM nuclear weapon capability to back any attempt to dominate by the threat of strategic nuclear exchange.
The People’s Liberation Army Navy could certainly make it so risky for the US and UK/AUS Royal Navies to operate in the South and East China Seas, and potentially far out into the Philippine Sea, that they would not be able to maintain air superiority or readily strike mainland China. The notion that “when it comes to Air & Sea we completely dominate” has become increasingly questionable in this region, notwithstanding the political question of what the United States would actually do about a genuine threat by the PRC to blockade or invade Taiwan.
Stranger