Days after the world's largest maritime exercises kicked off in the seas around Hawaii, China's Shandong aircraft carrier was spotted off the Philippine island of Luzon. This year’s RIMPAC is the largest iteration to date and organizers say a decommissioned warship will be sunk in a livefire sinking exercise, or SINKEX. Reports say the exercise will use the former amphibious assault ship USS Tarawa, which has a displacement of 40,000 tons, equivalent to the PLA's Shandong carrier. Beijing's staterun Global Times has meanwhile called RIMPAC a "muscle show" and the U.S. a "paper tiger." Today, we ask what makes this year’s event significant, what message it sends to China and how effective it can be in deterring aggressive behavior by Beijing in the Taiwan Strait and in the South and East China seas.

Our guests:

Tiehlin Yen
Project manager, Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation (TSEF) Center for Peace and Security (CPAS)

Tony Hu
Former U.S. Department of Defense senior director for China, Taiwan, Mongolia

Ronan Fu
Assistant research fellow, Academia Sinica Institute of Political Science