Really? "Protests"? A Chinese warship tries to force a U.S. warship to come to a halt on the high seas, and we "issue protests"?
I'm not suggesting a shot fired across the Chinese bow, but ... protests? That's the best we can do? The Chinese vessel crossed the USS Cowpens bow and stopped, forcing the Cowpens to maneuver dramatically in order to avoid a collision. There was a time in this man's military that such action would have resulted in a shot fired across the bow, and the offending naval fleet would have expected no less, nor responded, knowing the next shot wouldn't be "across" anything, but right down the pike.
Remember the Cuban missile crisis? The Soviets tried to nuclear-arm Cuba by running a gauntlet of U.S. ships blockading Castro's island. The lead ship was ordered by Aldis lamp to turn back. The ship didn't budge. So we fired a shot across the bow, angled about 100 yards ahead of it. They stopped. They turned. They didn't try again.
How about just sailing right at the Chinese boat? Scrambling a fighter jet from the nearby George Washington and overfly the Chinese carrier flight deck? Signalling the Chinese directly warning them to stay out of our ---- way?
Protests? Great googly-moogly! In answer to the question, the Chinese know the Great Pretender is gutless.
Romney said that in ten years or so the Chinese would no longer need us economically.
Then they will try to do to the rest of Asia what they have been doing to Tibet--occupy and repress.