[maxsanic]

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military...a-10-years

These actions are anything but a show of strength.

Show of strength is going to Taiwan to deter PLA, show of strength is going to Diaoyu to wrestle back actual administrative rights from Chinese back to Japanese, show of strength is going to the Thomas Shoal to help Philippines lift the siege, show of strength is going to the Kuril islands to help Japan deter Russia.

The US Navy did none of these. Instead it conveniently avoided all the hot areas and simply held "exercises" a.k.a. photo-ops sessions elsewhere. This sort of thing might appeal to the common masses but are otherwise explicit signs of weakness and it shows - all its allies just pay lip service to anti-China slogans but nobody really steps forward to do anything concrete.