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> So China could wipe out America’s military presence in Asia. What then? Do we assume that somehow the rest of America’s military back home and abroad doesn’t

> So China could wipe out America’s military presence in Asia. What then? Do we assume that somehow the rest of America’s military back home and abroad doesn’t respond? Yes, consider the following scenario, Using some political pretence, China invade Taiwan in a blitzkrieg which is over in a few days. All US communications and GPS are wiped out before the attack begins. Total chaos. Allies are blind. Any US forces in the vicinity trying to prevent the attack are obliterated. Next days China issue the following decree, Taiwan has joined the motherland and all regrettable attacks on US forces have stopped and a ceasefire is in effect. Any attack on China and Taiwan will be meet with nuclear forces. What will US and Nato do? What did they do when Russia elbowed itself into the Syrian conflict? That's right, nothing. The point is, any serious attack done by China will be over before US an allies can stop it or reply properly, unless there is a believable rapid response force on location.

EpicEng 7y ago
So, in your hypothetical, China is making a _massive_ bluff because they know the US would wipe them out as well as soon as the first nuke launched, not to mention the loss of nearly all their largest trading partners. Seems unlikely.
liability 7y ago
This is no less naive than the Japanese plan to make America concede the Pacific by killing two and and a half thousand Americans. The Chinese are not stupid enough to think that would work, rather than having the opposite effect of enraging Americans.
celticninja 7y ago
Huge difference is this implies a Chinese attack on US forces, you think they could allow that to go unchallenged? Russia didn't attack US forces in Syria or the rest of the middle east, so the US could ignore it. It might work if there was no attack on US military, but any attack, significant enough to disable the US military for a few days, would almost certainly be responded to with force.
deleted 7y ago
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myrandomcomment 7y ago
A bunch of jerks flew planes in a building at killed ~3k people and look how we reacted? The blood of Americans as you described would result in the same reaction as WW2, full stop. It is the way we wired. As an aside, the PLA trying to capture Taiwan will be a huge bloody mess. Any attack plan would be known as the build up would be seen by everyone. The Taiwan military is not a push over and has dug hole in every mountain. This is a pretty realistic view here - https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/25/taiwan-can-win-a-war-with-china/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/25/taiwan-can-win-a-war-wi... All of that being said, we should all work to find a solution that does not involved killing lots of people. China is still trying to find its place in the world and has a bit of a chip on its shoulder about how it was treated in the past. I have to believe there is a path in which we are all better off.

EpicEng 7y ago

So, in your hypothetical, China is making a _massive_ bluff because they know the US would wipe them out as well as soon as the first nuke launched, not to mention the loss of nearly all their largest trading partners. Seems unlikely.

liability 7y ago

This is no less naive than the Japanese plan to make America concede the Pacific by killing two and and a half thousand Americans. The Chinese are not stupid enough to think that would work, rather than having the opposite effect of enraging Americans.

celticninja 7y ago

Huge difference is this implies a Chinese attack on US forces, you think they could allow that to go unchallenged? Russia didn't attack US forces in Syria or the rest of the middle east, so the US could ignore it. It might work if there was no attack on US military, but any attack, significant enough to disable the US military for a few days, would almost certainly be responded to with force.

deleted 7y ago

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myrandomcomment 7y ago

A bunch of jerks flew planes in a building at killed ~3k people and look how we reacted? The blood of Americans as you described would result in the same reaction as WW2, full stop. It is the way we wired. As an aside, the PLA trying to capture Taiwan will be a huge bloody mess. Any attack plan would be known as the build up would be seen by everyone. The Taiwan military is not a push over and has dug hole in every mountain. This is a pretty realistic view here - https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/25/taiwan-can-win-a-war-with-china/ https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/09/25/taiwan-can-win-a-war-wi... All of that being said, we should all work to find a solution that does not involved killing lots of people. China is still trying to find its place in the world and has a bit of a chip on its shoulder about how it was treated in the past. I have to believe there is a path in which we are all better off.