China’s navy has more ships than the US. Does that matter? Geoff Ziezulewicz
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China s Harbin (112) guided-missile destroyer takes part in a week-long joint exercise with Russia in the East China Sea off Shanghai in May 2014. (Zhang Lei/Color China Photo/AP) Exactly if and when the increasing antagonism between United States and China will boil over into full-on conflict remains anybody’s guess. But for now, one thing is as clear as the aqua-blue waters that lap up on the shores of China’s man-made islands in the South China Sea: Beijing’s naval fleet is larger than that of the U.S. Navy.