A Hidden Message For US Bases In Guam, Yokosuka In New Chinese Missile Testing Range?

The Chinese military's use of U.S. warship replicas for missile target practice is a warning to Washington that not only the American warships but the military bases in Yokosuka and Guam will also be targeted, say analysts.

Satellite images had recently revealed how the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is using mock-ups of a U.S. aircraft carrier and two Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers at a weapons-testing facility in a remote desert in the northwest of the country.

While the satellite accessibility of the site hinted that Beijing is trying to show Washington what its missile forces can do, analysts think the new range also "is aimed at deterring military intervention by Washington in regional security issues," reported South China Morning Post.

Lu Li-shih, a former instructor at Taiwan’s Naval Academy in Kaohsiung, told South China Morning Post that the sizes of warship mock-ups hint that the PLA has stepped up tests to target smaller and more mobile vehicles this time.

"Judging by the [new shooting range’s] distance from the PLA rocket force’s launch sites in Inner Mongolia and Gansu, the new range for missile tests is over 2,500km [1,550 miles], meaning not only American warships would be targeted, but also the US military bases in Yokosuka and Guam," said Lu.

The report also quoted an unnamed military source who said the anti-ship missile testing program is led directly by General Zhang Youxia, the second in command in the Central Military Commission, chaired by President Xi Jinping.

According to the military insider, China wants to show the U.S. that the PLA can hit its warships at sea and military bases in the Indo-Pacific precisely.

Zhou Chenming, a researcher at the Yuan Wang military science and technology institute in Beijing, too thinks the vessel mock-ups and previous anti-ship missile drills were a warning.

"The message from Beijing to the Americans is, don’t believe aircraft carrier strike groups are unbeatable, and now even the US naval bases in the region are under the coverage of the PLA’s DF-26 and other medium-range ballistic missiles," Zhou told the news outlet.

In August 2020, China fired an anti-ship ballistic missile into the South China Sea which a senior U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Admiral had described as an "unmistakable message" to Washington.

Before that, the PLA Rocket Force launched six DF-21D missiles into waters north of the disputed Spratly Islands. China had also launched DF-26 dual-capable missile, also dubbed "Guam killer" that can try to slow an American response by striking the U.S. Air Force bomber base in Guam.