I think the theory is, even if they heard something, they would've shrugged (1) and said "I dunno", because they don't want to reveal to e.g. the Chinese about

I think the theory is, even if they heard something, they would've shrugged (1) and said "I dunno", because they don't want to reveal to e.g. the Chinese about their listening capabilities. The sentence is also true if you replace "they" with "the Chinese Navy" and "Chinese" with "Americans". (1) https://media.tenor.com/zDbPxZJwlFQAAAAM/shrug.gif https://media.tenor.com/zDbPxZJwlFQAAAAM/shrug.gif