Satellite Images Show China Is Building Mock-Up U.S. Warships

Fears of escalations between the U.S. and China have risen with tensions in Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the Indo-Pacific.

Above the Taklamakan Desert, nicknamed the "Sea of Death," satellite images show China has constructed mock-ups of a U.S. aircraft carrier and warships. 

"We have to assume that China wanted us to see these mock-ups in the desert. They know all about our satellites and their capabilities. And so they knew that these models would be found sooner or later and that we would understand them," said Robert Daly, director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States. "So it isn't really that we have cleverly figured out China's secret. For China, this too, the discovery of these models is an aspect of deterrence and is seen by Beijing as a warning to the United States. They want us to know what they're practicing for."

According to the U.S. Naval Institute, China's first structure for a mock-up American aircraft carrier was built in 2019. The targeting site is near a range that tested so-called "carrier killer" missiles to destroy carriers, often seen as the Navy's crown jewels.