This month, the US military dispatched a large number of cutting-edge combat forces to participate in the annual joint military exercise between South Korea and the United States, the largest in decades. Among them, the US Navy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier "John Stennis", which arrived in Busan, South Korea on June 5438+03, attracted special attention.

"John F. Stannis" is one of the main battle carriers in the United States. Together with the "Ronald Reagan" long-term deployed at the US military base in Yokosuga, Japan, the US military now has two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers in East Asian waters.

Military experts believe that as a strategic weapon, the location, timing and method of aircraft carrier deployment have intriguing strategic implications. The presence of US military aircraft carriers in the Asia-Pacific region not only shows that the strategic focus of the United States is accelerating to shift to the Asia-Pacific region, but also reflects the tendency of the United States to "militarize many issues in the Asia-Pacific region."

"subtle change" embodies "center of gravity adjustment"

"John Stennis" is a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with a displacement of 6.5438+0.03 million tons and can carry 6,500 people and more than 80 aircraft. Since serving in the 1990s, he has been active in the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and participated in many overseas operations of the United States, such as patrolling the "no-fly zone" in southern Iraq in the Arabian Sea from 65438 to 0998.

Han Xudong, a professor in the Strategic Research Office of China National Defense University, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that "John Stennis" has been active frequently since its service, constantly appearing in "hot spots" and "reflecting some strategic designs of the United States". Looking back at the "subtle changes" in the deployment of American aircraft carriers in the past, it is not difficult to find out the adjustment of strategic focus involved.

During the Cold War, the United States took the Asia-Pacific region as the secondary focus of its global hegemony strategy, and set up a military base in Yokosuga as the home port of its aircraft carrier. Han Xudong said: "The aircraft carrier based in Yokosuga played an important role in the process of the US-Soviet struggle for world hegemony during the Cold War."

For some time after the end of the Cold War, because of the problems in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the United States did not pay as much attention to the Asia-Pacific direction as it does now. This is also reflected in the deployment of aircraft carriers: Kitty Hawk, with its home port in Yokosuga from 65438 to 2008, was the last conventional power aircraft carrier retired by the US military, and it looked old and backward compared with other US aircraft carriers deployed in other "hot spots" at that time.

With the start of the Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy and the acceleration of the adjustment of the global strategic focus to the Asia-Pacific region, the American aircraft carrier in the Asia-Pacific region is also undergoing subtle changes, one of which is to replace the George Washington with the newer and more advanced Ronald Reagan at the Yokosuga base.

Han Xudong said that the signal that the United States sent the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan to Japan may be that "the United States should take active measures to create a favorable security environment in the Asia-Pacific region".

Overbearing is "normalized" and the problem is "militarized"

According to US Navy official website and American media reports, the aircraft carrier "John Stennis" 65438+ departed from Bremerton Port, Washington in the middle of 10, arrived in the South China Sea at the beginning of this month, and will be deployed in the western Pacific for about seven months.

Since the new Ronald Reagan, which belongs to the Nimitz class, has been deployed in the western Pacific for a long time, why did the US military let the John F. Stennis come from its home port on the east Pacific coast, and frequently appeared in the western Pacific?

Han Xudong believes that the US move may contain multiple strategic intentions. In addition to stepping up the adjustment of the deployment focus of overseas troops to the Asia-Pacific region and using the formation of dual aircraft carriers to form a powerful military deterrent in the western Pacific, the United States also intends to make more American aircraft carriers "actually exist in the western Pacific" and make their "hegemonic behavior become the norm", thus building an Asia-Pacific military order beneficial to the United States.

"The presence of US aircraft carriers in the western Pacific may be strengthened to accelerate the construction of a US-led military order in the Asia-Pacific region," he said. "The United States shows its strength and frequently mobilizes aircraft carriers in the Asia-Pacific region in order to push some countries in the Asia-Pacific region to fall to the United States or reduce the tendency of some countries to alienate from the United States."

In addition, the addition of an aircraft carrier by the United States in the Asia-Pacific region also reflects that the United States is using military means to promote the development of many problems in this region in a direction beneficial to its own interests. In Han Xudong's view, this use of military means is a traditional trick of the United States. In fact, the United States is militarizing many issues in the Asia-Pacific region.