China is currently developing a littoral defense fleet, they are not interested in a blue-water navy capable of projecting force throughout the world ocean. However, I'm sure they are very interested in being able to counter blue water navies (meaning USA, the only one left) in their back yard, the Western Pacific. The flash point remains Taiwan, and China wants to be able to have the capability to support an invasion against that island. That does not mean they want to invade, it just means they want to be able to threaten to invade.

The US Navy carrier task force, supported by fleet trains from all over the Pacific basin is their only credible adversary. They cannot hope to match our Navy on a ship-to-ship basis, but neither can we concentrate all our naval assets in one place on short notice. They are doing exactly what I would do if I was in their shoes. Develop a capability against carrier task forces, and their supply and escort vessels, without resorting to large fleets. A big part of this is to test their ability to penetrate antisub screens and other submarine defenses and threaten our capital ships.

I'm sure our naval planners understand this too, and are taking steps of their own, including public realtions moves as you point out; but the fact remains, the bigger and better their navy gets, the more skill, experience and intelligence it acquires, the easier their job gets and the harder ours becomes. For those of us who might tend to blame them for this, try to see it from their point of view. They have no desire to come to the Americas or Europe and conduct military operations, so why should the Americans want the capability to come to Asia and do it? They may even be perfectly aware we have no plans to do this now, but they have no guarantees about twenty years down the line, either. For that matter, neither do we.

If you want a historical precedent, you need not go far--Royal Navy vs Reichsmarine, or Imperial Japanese Navy vs USN, 1930.