Earlier this week, the People's Republic of China sent a new naval fleet to the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters to protect its commercial ships in light of the ongoing Houthi attacks on international shipping vessels for more than a year.

The Houthis are clearly inferior in combat capabilities. Yet naval forces operating in the region have failed to stop their attacks. This is true even though the United States has struck the Houthis on multiple occasions with a combination of air power and naval missile strikes.