Very old news, but if you’re new to the weapon here’s tphuang’s excellent blog post two years ago which explains its potential very well.

http://www.informationdissemination.net/2009/03/plan-asbm-development.html

Rumours of its operational capability range the whole spectrum, but I do think chen was trying to placate the west with the “problems” the system was facing — an extension of the “hiding our capabilities” doctrine.

As for implications, what is guaranteed is that the USN will think twice before sending a couple of cvns in the taiwan strait during a time of high tension. Anything beyond that is foggy.

Objective achieved, if that’s the case.