Monday, July 13, 2020
The US is currently challenging China's territorial claims in the South China Sea. The provocation was both verbal, and physical in nature. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described China's policies as "unlawful." Meanwhile, two US Navy carrier groups have been conducting training operations in the region.
Such provocations could end badly for the American Empire. The US is heavily in debt. It can't afford a war. It is also overextended in the Middle East, and Central Asia. A new large scale conflict would require serious resources which the nation simply does not possess. Most US industry has been shipped to China thanks to globalists and free trade zealots. Add to this the problem of logistics. US forces would rely on unreliable allies, or vulnerable supply lines that are thousands of miles long. Simply put, the Chinese have almost all of the advantages.
Indeed, winning a conventional war against China would be more difficult than any war in US history. The Americans face numerous challenges. The Chinese would be fighting in their own backyard. The Chinese have spent decades preparing for such a conflict. They have a massive army, and in a pinch would be able to draft a conscript force larger than the US population. The Chinese could also rely on a massive fifth column within the US. They have over three million people in America. The Chinese have taken control of the Panama Canal, and important resources throughout much of Africa, and Latin America.
The theatre of operations itself would prove challenging for the US. The Chinese built and hardened a number of artificial islands in the South Sea. Chinese aircraft can easily operate from those artificial islands for weeks without being resupplied from the mainland. The Chinese have developed a web of defenses which some planners think might be capable of detecting US stealth aircraft. Most threatening, the Chinese have developed "carrier killers." These anti-ship missiles are capable of sinking American aircraft carriers. The loss of even a single carrier would constitute a major loss of US power and prestige.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/05/07/the-panama-canal-could-become-the-center-of-the-u-s-china-trade-war/
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/07/13/us-to-reject-nearly-all-chinese-claims-in-south-china-sea/
https://warontherocks.com/2020/03/beyond-conventional-wisdom-evaluating-the-plas-south-china-sea-bases-in-operational-context/