Land based anti-ship guided missiles have been around for some time, but land based high velocity ballistic missiles with this capability would mark a seismic shift in the balance of naval warfare.
Building a weapon to specificaly target a US Carrier battle group is probably the most provacative act of hostility against the American military machine other than building a nuclear delivery system designed to level Washington DC and New York City from the Gobi Desert.
Chinese military technology, particularly in regards to aerospace is at best at least a generation behind the very latest that America can produce. I think I would question China's technological capability to produce this type of missile on her own. Although China's military and technological capabilities have grown rapidly over the past decade or so, China's latest combat aircraft designs and even her space programe has the fingerprints of other countries in it, notably Russia. With Russian help it might be possibly to build a weapons system of this type, but if Russia is helping China to build this type of weapon then why do the Russians not already have or plan to have them as well?
Also would provoking an arms race with a military and technological superpower be a wise move for China, particulary one who is also its largest trading partner and the largest foreign investor in Chinese economy?
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