According to the US, the Chinese military has built dummies of an aircraft carrier and two other US warships for possible target exercises in the desert. According to a report from the US Naval Institute in Annapolis, Maryland, available on Monday, satellite images show the replicas in the Ruoqiang area of the Taklamakan Desert in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.
According to the US, the Chinese military has built dummies of an aircraft carrier and two other US warships for possible target exercises in the desert. According to a report from the US Naval Institute in Annapolis, Maryland, available on Monday, satellite images show the replicas in the Ruoqiang area of the Taklamakan Desert in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.
The aircraft carrier model is practically flat in its original size and should appear similar to a target image on the radar, according to the report. It is not the first time that such targets have been built in the desert, but these replicas are more accurate and more developed. When asked about the report, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told the Beijing press on Monday, “I don’t know about this matter.”
However, the satellite images from Maxar Technologies clearly contradict Wenbin’s statements. That News portal of the US Naval Institute, USNI, illustrated in a recent report It is urgent and clear how exactly the dummies in the Chinese desert adhere to the blueprints of the US warships. (see pictures)
The timing for such a news “bomb” could not be more delicate: As the eXXpress reported, the US has been eyeing the development of the Chinese military for some time with great suspicion. In the meantime, thanks to enormous rearmament campaigns with gigantic aircraft carriers and a generous expansion of its submarine fleet, China is even considered the largest sea power in the world. Accordingly, tensions between the United States and China are growing: While China is arming itself and pretending to be innocent, the United States is sounding the alarm louder and louder – and that is exactly what China likes even less. The frictions should therefore no longer “merely” revolve around Taiwan or China’s controversial territorial claims in the South China Sea – the Americans now obviously feel threatened in their position as a military superpower. (red / APA / dpa)
