bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      name
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sections {
    value {
      relatedNewsletters {
        ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
        id
      }
      id
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on Section {
  name
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_image_posties_article", "og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Article {
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


sections

types

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

entityUuid

SCMP Reporter

Given its potential to wipe out an aircraft carrier - for America a  core projection of its  power - no weapon under development in China exercises strategic imaginations in Washington quite like the anti-ship ballistic missile. 
The US intelligence community, which is scrutinising China's military build-up ever more closely, knows less about the missile than any other aspect of the PLA's armoury. It throws up more questions than answers. Precisely how far has China's programme progressed? Would China ever really want to risk firing one, given the potential for disastrous miscalculation by its enemies?  
Some recent media reports have suggested Beijing is close to completing the weapon. But a close reading of  recent  US intelligence and Congressional reports, official statements and academic studies shows considerable doubt remains about  how soon a Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile will  be ready, and whether it is feasible for China to build one. 
A working anti-ship ballistic missile  would put China in uncharted waters. While virtually all other weapons it is developing, from aircraft carriers to mobile launchers for nuclear weapons, represent technology used by other militaries, no other nation has developed a working anti-ship ballistic missile.  The then-Soviet Union and the US were both eyeing such a weapon towards the end of the cold war, but both signed deals that stopped further work as part of arms control agreements.
China is not bound by any such agreement and apparently sees the weapon as a trump card in a so-called access-denial strategy that already encompasses ships, submarines and lower-flying cruise missiles. 
If it succeeds, possession of such a missile  could dramatically alter  the stakes in the event of conflict between China and the US  over Taiwan - a battle in which US aircraft carriers would normally be expected to  play a pivotal role. It can be considered a powerful asymmetric weapon, providing a deterrent against the strengths of a larger opponent.
With a range of 1,500 kilometres from land-based launch sites, an anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) would put in reach China's most strategic and disputed waters in the western Pacific and Indian oceans.
'This  concept has been percolating in China's strategic consciousness for some time,' Dr Andrew Erickson,  an associate professor at the China Maritime Studies Institute  of the US Naval War College,  said. 
'My best guess is that China has the technological capacity to develop an ASBM and has made great progress regarding hardware. Mastering detection, targeting and bureaucratic co-ordination will likely represent an ongoing challenge,' he said, speaking in a private capacity.
To understand those challenges, consider the basic concept of a ballistic missile. Traditionally aimed at fixed targets, such as a city, they are fired by rockets into space just above the earth's atmosphere. Flying in an arc, they re-enter the atmosphere and plunge at high speed into their target, carrying conventional or nuclear warheads.
The anti-ship ballistic missile, however, has to somehow lock on to a specific moving target in the last part of its flight and then manoeuvre the warhead towards it. As it rushes to earth, the weapon must also be able to avoid fire from the ballistic missile defences of its target. It is, as one Beijing-based defence attach? describes it, 'rocket science ... the ultimate in rocket science, in fact'.
China already has the basic hard-ware - the medium range DF-21D missile that is  part of the People's Liberation Army's  extensive inventory of ballistic missiles. Work on building  over-the-horizon radars needed to find and track an aircraft carrier deep in the western Pacific, for example, is already under way.
It is much  less clear how far Chinese technicians have come in creating a weapon that can be adequately manoeuvred in its final stages and do  enough damage upon  impact. Rather than trying to sink an aircraft carrier, it is likely China would seek, at the least, to destroy its all-important control tower  and flight deck.
It must also make sure a system of anti-ship ballistic missiles  has its own defences;  an extensive array of land radars and satellites would be vulnerable to attack.
Despite these challenges, China has been intriguingly open on this particular score. While its programme has never been formally confirmed or included in its defence white papers, PLA writing on anti-ship ballistic missile  theory and doctrine has surfaced, including a handbook prepared for the army's Second Artillery Corps, the strategic rocket force responsible for China's land-based missile arsenals.
Erickson notes that China's well-documented investment in anti-ship ballistic missile  programmes 'suggests Beijing's leaders are optimistic about this technology'. He also notes that a  flood of recent official reports and statements from the US defence and intelligence communities  'makes that optimism appear justified'.
However, no one  is offering a precise time line for the development of a fully functioning system, never mind a rocket test. This  information vacuum  serves the weapon's most effective purpose - deterrence.  Without being certain of whether China could successfully attack an aircraft carrier, the US increasingly faces the prospect of having to assume it can.
Already, the Pentagon's stated concern over access-denial weapons is affecting strategy and deployments, from the stationing of increased numbers of attack submarines in the western Pacific to the reduction in new destroyers that lack Aegis ballistic missile defences.
Erickson added: 'When it comes to targeting a carrier, there will not be a sharp red line between no capability and full capability. Some Chinese analysts believe that even the significant likelihood of a capability may have a large deterrent effect.'
Gary Li,  a researcher at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies,  said the raft of unanswered questions was probably serving Beijing's interests nicely.
'I think as an option the Chinese have been good at using a lack of transparency as a force multiplier,' he said. 'And whether or not the ASBM is a real threat, I think it seems to be working pretty well in terms of already scaring the US.'
One  Asian defence attach? noted that, despite a surge in commentaries and reporting from Washington, hard new facts about just how far Beijing had come were thin on the ground.
An untested deterrent about which facts are vague may be the safest outcome of an ASBM development programme.  Firing one  during a time of conflict would always run the risk of being misinterpreted in Washington or Moscow as a nuclear strike. And that could spark retaliation in kind.  Would Beijing's leaders ever be so  desperate that they would risk losing say, Shanghai, to  a nuclear attack merely in order  to destroy a US aircraft carrier?
Some Second Artillery Corps documents suggest firing warning shots at a carrier - an act which could also be  misinterpreted by a foe, with dangerous consequences.  'Authoritative PLA sources reveal overconfidence in China's ability to control escalation, which is itself an extraordinary danger,' Erickson said. 
'My own personal theory is that the Second Artillery Corps is overconfident because Chinese strategists have never had the sobering experience of, for example, a Cuban missile crisis, to impress [on them]  the realities of the 'fog of war' and the potential for misperceptions and unintended, potentially disastrous consequences.'




Is China's rocket science all it's cracked up to be, experts ask