Trying to keep my reasoning succinct in order to avoid writing a wall of text:
The soviets were geographically blocked from this being an option
Similarly for Vietnam for different reasons
Cuba doesn’t have the option of dedicating the requisite amount resources(and has the misfortune of being an island next to the most powerful current naval power)
China has the geography to become a great naval power. Sure, it doesn’t have both coasts. It has land connections that led to the Silk Road being a thing on the other, possibly a greater advantage.
They are building up militarily, and seem to be advancing commercial maritime pursuits on this well.
Thoughts?
I would like to add that China does as part of its naval defense strategy includes land-sea missiles and anti ship missiles from various sources, which are supposed to have the capabilities to destroy US ships who are within missile firing range of them and might also deny air craft carriers plenty of places to be. However they are expensive (not as expensive as bigger naval units) and lack active capabilities.
They have different ranges, but 1500-2000km with super sonic sounds are common:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YJ-21 or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DF-21#DF-21D
Here is a map to visualize the ranges: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/PLA_ballistic_missiles_range.jpg
The US tried to develop counter measures, but the counter measures are remaining a bit experimental.
forgive my ignorance, but how would they target ones like the JL-2 and above?
aircraft carriers and the like are big, but that is a hell of a distance to fire at something around the size of a football pitch that can also move
I only read translated papers, I can't tell you the details.
fair
I think that's just a chart of different ballistic missile ranges. The anti-ship missiles are the innermost red line, and the longer range ones would be ICBMs. Looking it up to confirm, the JL-2 is a sub-launched nuclear ICBM.