This is CBSI on the world.

I'm John Bachelor with Gordon Chang at Gordon G. Chang, my colleague and co-ist, and we're very pleased to welcome Captain James Fennell,

United States Navy retired intelligence to help us understand a headline from the South China Morning Post in English,

noting that this is a publication heavily influenced by the Chinese

Communist Party. The headline, why U.S. aircraft carriers voyage to the Middle East is causing

ripples around Taiwan. Jim, a very good day to you. That would have been the Nimitz headed to the support of what we now know to be the operation against Iran, the bombing him.

However, the aircraft carrier in place in East Asia is meant as a significant signal to both the mainland and to Taiwan and our allies that were ready to defend

Taiwan. Moving it out of theater, what is that? What do we learn from this, Jim? Good evening to you.

Well, good evening, John and Gordon. Well, since the operation enduring Iraqi freedom back in 2003, when we sent the duty for deployed naval

force carrier, we call it the FDNF carrier, it's home ported in Yucca, Japan.

Back then in 2003, it was U.S. Kittiehot.

And we sent it to the Gulf, and we left the Indo-Pacific Asia essentially naked in terms of having the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier on present and on station to reassure our allies in the region and to be a deterrent force against China or North Korea.

And from 2003 up until this last couple of years, that was never, that FDNF carrier always stayed in the Indo-Pacific.

There was always one carrier there.

Now in the last year, there's been four instances where the Navy's had its carriers that are in the Pacific operating in the Western Pacific sent to the Gulf.

In all, in three of those cases, there didn't leave a gap in the Western Pacific because we had

another carrier. One occasion last year, there was a bit of a brief gap. Right now, as the Nimitz

is headed back into the Indian Ocean and heading towards the Gulf, there is no gap because we still have

the FDNF carrier, the George Washington Carrier Strike Group, is now on patrol in the Philippine

Sea. She got underway for what they call FCLPs, fleet carrier landing practice the week of

20 May, and she was been operating essentially in the Philippine Sea since the 20th of May.

So the Nimitz is actually, she covered down for the GW while she was in port, and the Nimitz

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