[MattMusson]

China is a Maritime Dependent Empire with a brown water navy. Even if they sank US carriers and invaded Taiwan, if the US NAVY quit protecting Chinese cargo ships traveling around the world, and oil from the Middle East to China, the Chinese economy would collapse.

[Leaning Right]

I would guess that if China attacked a US ship - or Taiwan - the following three things would happen:

1. All trade with China and the US would cease.
2. All Chinese assets in the US would be seized.
3. A US naval blockade (at a distance) would cripple the Chinese economy.

Is China willing to accept all that?

[Joe 6-pack]

"...if the US NAVY quit protecting Chinese cargo ships traveling around the world, and oil from the Middle East to China, the Chinese economy would collapse."

It's almost as if the US Navy was being used to protect certain financial interests in the Chinese shipping industry...

[nathanbedford]

Please note:

the China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) posted a video via its Weibo social media account that showed a simulated attack on the U.S. military base on Guam.

The point is to change perceptions of the balance of power and the reach of that power. As the aircraft carrier ends its heroic role as the spear point of the free world which it has maintained since December 7, 1941, the Chinese Communists want America's public and America's allies to understand the shrinking power and the shrinking scope of power that can still be projected by aircraft carriers. If not now, very soon our aircraft carriers will be driven so far offshore for their own protection as to be far less dominant.

As the perception changes, the Chinese planned takeover of Taiwan takes on a new dimension. If aircraft carrier power alone is not enough with conventional weapons to deter the Chinese, then the problem of nuclear escalation arises. The American public becomes less and less inclined to engage to protect Taiwan and, then, less and less inclined to supply Taiwan with war matériel. Similarly, our allies begin to doubt both the capacity and willingness of the United States to defend or even arm Taiwan.

The encircling alliance around China begins to break down. No one wants nuclear war and the eclipse of the aircraft carrier takes the balance of power in a new direction. That new direction changes perception entirely. We are now compelled to contemplate nuclear war if we want to support Taiwan. The Chinese up the ante and we back down.

The fact that Beijing Joe Biden stands between mainland China and the island of Taiwan utterly changes that balance of power and our allies know it.

The Chinese Communists have gained much with the release of their video.