Originally Posted by
Asturias56
The Chinese are notoriously thin-skinned - they get bent out of shape about things that to us, seem totally trivial.
It doesn't change the fact that an small RN carrier group in the S China Sea would find it hard to survive if the balloon did go up
The question isn't survivability, it's whether the Chinese would give a damn. Clearly they do, this despite some posters thinking otherwise.
As to survivability, I'm no naval warfare expert and I suspect neither are you. What I do know is survival/effectiveness is tied to tactics and risk aversion. A CBG, be it the UK's or the USN isn't going to sail just offshore of China where it would incur a savage result. I suspect it would operate in the outer island regions where the full brunt of the Chinese military would have issues concentrating.