OMG! China Has "More Clout Than Ever"

China Splurging on Military as U.S. Pulls Back (Christopher Bodeen) from the Associated Press
"China's navy commissioned 17 new warships last year, the most of any nation. In a little more than a decade, it's expected to have three aircraft carriers, giving it more clout than ever in a region of contested seas and festering territorial disputes. While Beijing still lags far behind the U.S. in both funding and technology, its spending boom is attracting new scrutiny at a time of severe cuts in U.S. defense budgets that have some questioning Washington's commitments to its Asian allies, including some who have lingering disputes with China."
NOTICE how this author never mentions how many carriers the US already has and masks the gloss-over with foggy generalizations.  As we noted last week, the US has NINETEEN carriers.  To this author (and so many others just like him) I ask, why the circumlocution?!  Answer: because it completely undercuts his vaguely hawkish argument that the US is "pulling back" and that the Chinese have "more clout than ever"!