[Carrie]

"This means that, for the foreseeable future, the Navy must retain an ability to locate and destroy Chinese submarines."

Believe me, it's a top priority.
I've been privy to the Navy's focus on submarines, torpedos, and especially sonar arrays since I was about 3 feet high.
Superior listening capabilities and advanced hydrophones are constantly being not only developed, but put into service. Something modified that was initially purported as "it can't be done" rolled off the line and was sent off for deployment just this past Monday, having passed all tests with flying colors.
Honestly the biggest danger to our listening capabilities is the damn sharks. I don't know *why* they seem to think a mile-long casing of delicate hydrophone arrays looks like a giant piece of bait, but they do. They're even biting the passive arrays, which do nothing but listen, so in theory it shouldn't upset the natural "sonar" that a shark has running down the length of his body.

China's fleet is being monitored very, *very* closely.

That's one of the things that worries me so much about North Korea. It's much like a small noisy dog sitting in front of a very large, silent dog. I do *not* want to get into a war with China, but I'm not so sure they don't want to get into a war with us not too far down the road. Their immediate target certainly looks to be Taiwan, but the preparations they're making are way more than overkill for that. They're looking further ahead, and they've got something in mind.

This article is extremely comprehensive and well worth the read - albeit a really *long* read.