Drills

Talisman Sabre: Trying to deter China

Whenever the U.S. conducts exercises or moves ships into the Pacific, it is meant to send two messages to the Chinese: “1. Hey, we’re here; and 2. back off — behave yourself, etc.,” said Dean Cheng, a senior researcher with the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington. The problem is the Chinese take away a completely different message: “You are trying to intimidate me, I guess I’m going to have to kill these things,” he said.