> With sanctions applied by the US Navy. Well, since no-one wants to start WWIII, the US Navy isn't going to attack Chinese ships, especially if escorted by th

> With sanctions applied by the US Navy. Well, since no-one wants to start WWIII, the US Navy isn't going to attack Chinese ships, especially if escorted by the Chinese Navy. QED. We're used to see the US behave like they can do anything they want but that's only because they are usually orders of magnitude stronger than the opposition. But if the opposition was of similar strength they would be much more restrained and cautious because, again, no-one is suicidal. I'm sure the question has been studied many times in war games and scenarios and I expect the plan would be to put pressure at the source (i.e. 'suggest' that you should not sell to China), which would not work with all countries.