The Chinese Navy: How Big a Threat to the U.S.? - TIME

"For years, a fierce debate about Bejing's military intentions has raged among defense intellectuals and the brass inside the Pentagon. Hawks insist that the Chinese are seeking to drive the U.S. military out of the Pacific, and make it Beijing's lake rather than what it has been for decades, an American pond. They point to episodes such as the March 8 incident involving the U.S.S. Impeccable, a Navy surveillance ship that was harassed while cruising 75 nautical miles off the coast of Hainan. Five Chinese vessels surrounded it and tried to snatch its towed array radar from the water. Gates, responding to the incident, said he "didn't think [the Chinese] are trying to push the 7th Fleet out of that area." But hawks, as Thomas Donnelly of the American Enterprise Institute has said, believe "that is precisely what the Chinese would like to do."
The Chinese Navy: How Big a Threat to the U.S.? - TIME