I have a question about the political purposes of some of these responses. The article notes that China sortied J-11 multiple times. But the J-11 (which is just

I have a question about the political purposes of some of these responses. The article notes that China sortied J-11 multiple times. But the J-11 (which is just a licensed Su-27) doesn't carry anti-ship missiles, or even laser-guided bombs. Why use that aircraft against a cruiser? I suppose it would be a threat to the Seahawks, but in a real conflict the cruiser would be more than capable of defending them. I mean I get that this isn't a real military conflict so that doesn't matter, but is that communicating some sort of message? Maybe that the PLA isn't able to produce lots of ASuW sorties on demand, or maybe the PLA is trying to demonstrate they aren't really concerned about a cruiser? I feel like the actions in these sorts of maneuvers speak volumes, but I'm just not able to pick up the meaning.