China can eliminate US aircraft carriers at will: Paul Craig Roberts

China can eliminate the two aircraft carriers at will the United States has sent to the South China Sea amid escalating tensions between the two powers, says an American economist and author.

For the second time in two weeks, the USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan conducted operations and military exercises in the waterway between July 4 and July 6, and returned to the region on Friday, according to a US Navy statement issued on Friday.

“It is not a meaningful military action for the United States to send two aircraft carriers. Two aircraft carriers are no threat whatsoever to China. China can eliminate the aircraft carriers at will,” said Paul Craig Roberts, who was Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury Department under former President Ronald Reagan.

“And so this is not a significant action. This is some sort of public relations for the American public to keep them, believing that the United States has enemies and needs a very strong military budget. It’s also a product of President Trump. Having been on the defensive for the entirety of his presidential term, accused of being a foreign agent, a Russian agent, and so he has to show that he stands up for America. So that's all the aircraft carriers are,” he added.

Relations between Washington and Beijing have been strained over the South China Sea and over the new coronavirus, trade, and Hong Kong.

The United States has threatened to impose sanctions on China over accusations of Beijing’s exploitation of offshore resources in most of the South China Sea.

A top US diplomat for East Asia said on Tuesday that Washington could respond with sanctions against Chinese officials and enterprises involved in what he claimed as coercion in the South China Sea. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a daily news briefing in Beijing on Friday US officials have “lost their minds and gone mad” in dealing with Beijing.

“These people, for self-interest and political gain, do not hesitate to hijack domestic public opinion… to the point where they have lost their minds and gone mad,” she said.

US officials have ‘gone mad’ in dealing with China: Beijing

China says US officials have “lost their minds and gone mad” in dealing with Beijing, in the strongest verbal reaction from China to the ratcheting up of tensions by Washington.

Roberts said, “She's correct. ‘The United States is’ rather than say that ‘gone mad,’ I would simply say they're acting in a very childish way. And I think China should avoid acting childish in response. What China should do is simply ignore the United States, and go on about its business.”

“There's no reason for China to have to reply to these ineffective actions and stupid statements that come out of Washington. China should just ignore them and go on about their business, because these statements don't really mean anything,” he added.  

“When you think about it, so much of the American industry is now located in China. And also, China is the source of so many American medicines that the notion that the United States can punish China is ridiculous. China is who can do the punishments. You know what if they just nationalized Apple Computer. There's nothing the United States could do about it,” he stated.

“So I think, on the whole, I don't believe that these aircraft carriers going to China mean anything. And I think the best thing would be China just doesn't reply. It just doesn't pay any attention and goes about their business. And I think the rest of the world would get a much better message from that the Chinese don't even consider the Americans worthwhile to be bothered with. So that would be what I would do if I was a top official Chinese government, I would just ignore the Americans,” he concluded.

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