Taiwan is not some “far away island”, it is actually the REAL China. We fought together against the Japanese, while the Communists fought against the Kumintong - essentially aiding the Japanese. We will not let Taiwan fall, count on it. If we do, we will not have any allies ever again.
Nixon screwed us royally with his “One China” BS - all in an attempt to slow the flow of Chinese troops and weapons into North Vietnam. Had he actually targeted those supply lines inside Guangxi, we could have ended the China problem back then before they had 1,000 warheads.
Everyone assumes that the PLA is all powerful now, but they are not.
Right now they have fewer DF-41 missiles than we have mid course interceptors. Hopefully THAAD can be upgraded to cushion that buffer. They do not have a true blue water navy, and they suck at using their shiny new toys away from home. We have operated in wartime or low level warfare for the past 75 years with few interruptions, and their littoral quantity advantage would dissipate at an alarming rate in the face of our combat experience.
The South China Sea has natural chokepoints just like the Strait of Hormuz, and the PLAN (Navy) would not survive any attempt to breakout.
Their satellites would face a half life measured in seconds. All of them, leaving them blind, their new weapons without guidance, and their subs without orders, while their major cities witnessed multiple sunrises that day.
Chinese apartment towers, shopping centers, subways, and any building over six stories tall is equipped with underground blast doors and survival supplies. Those are of little use when you’re buried under all that rubble, they are just short term storage.
We understand, and fully prepare for unlimited warfare beyond what China has dreamed up for their takeover of the planet. (Except we won’t use bio or chemical weapons, they will.) They think we are weak or timid, and that they can push us because we haven’t forcefully stood up to them - our reticence is not weakness as they assume.
They should go back in history and review some photos of Hiroshima, Dresden, and Okinawa. The South China Sea would become their Leyte Gulf faster than they can imagine.
they won’t have subs either