[Jeff Head]

The historical prcedent is there. We have hundreds of these ships near our coasts at any ont time. In my Series I have the Chinese convert one group of ships as tatcical missile launchers, disguising the launchers as containers. From well off the cooast, on our "Pearle Harbor Day", they launch hundreds and hundreds of tactical missiles (non-nuclear) at us and destroy a lot of infrastructure, the White House, Capitol, shipbuilding works, etc. all along both major coastrs and even in the Gulf at Pascagoola.

This happens after an escalation in the Mid East with Iran and Syria, and after the North Koreans go south, which both stretch us very thin. World War III.

[SaltyJoe]

The attack is so overt and so easily traceable that the US would no doubt retaliate in a way to unbalance the CCP strangle hold on China. Bordering countries don't exactly recognize the Chinese as good neighbors. A counter-strike is too much of a real threat against the CCP:

1) Tibetan uprising and Islamic Jihad in China's back door.

2) 3 Gorges Dam sabotage.

3) Sink the entire COSCO shipping fleet, and/or capture what can be confiscated and used as payment for the war.

4) Raid and remove every industrial and intelligence spy syndicate that uses Chinese nationals, punish whomever does business with China. Communism doesn't foster innovation, so they need their spy network.

5) Remove Red Chinese influence from Central American (Panama Canal) by encouraging and backing Panama and all other Central and South Americans to nationalize property and business away from atheist governments that persecute religions.

6) Gather a coalition of recognition for Taiwan as an independent and sovereign nation.

7) Remove Communist China from the space race (swat their satellites from the sky).

8) Cut/infiltrate all submarine cables going into China.

As one can see, the removal of Communist Chinese influence is far easier especially if such an overt attack is carried out (that's why back pack nukes are a bigger threat than container ships...they're harder to trace). Heck, if Chinese container ships were rigged to obliterate ALL of the major cities on our coasts, with nuclear strikes no less, the retribution would be so great against Beijing that it's unlikely they'd ever considered it.

1) American cities don't decide the politics of America. Two presidential elections are proof of that. Urban politics lean very left, but we're still a republic and we never have been a democracy.

2) Our military forces aren't concentrated in a way that an enemy's strike could wipe out all of the projected strength of American might.

3) Wiping out American cities removes most of the "Culture of Death" that's far greater a threat than Sino-centric Chinese Communism. The CCP needs the culture of death to whittle away America's traditional strength.

4) Attacking Americans overtly even in a small opens retaliation invite consequences too horrific given the American mindset for "playing" war. Most having fought Americans and lived through the ordeal will say that it's better to not fight Americans.

If China really wanted to supersede America, the CCP would have to do things that would make them completely different. They wouldn't be Communist to begin with, and the attitude change needed for them to be champions would mean that the "Chinese" identity would be relegated to only describing an ethnic appearance and an historical culture. As it is, "Chinese" Communism rejects Chinese Culture. For one thing, most Chinese living in China don't know what it means to possess a brother or sister. An attitude that puts population making out of business is not friendly to any life breeding culture (especially the way traditional Chinese culture was).

Like I said before, it's a worthy enough possibility that it must be countered with more than mere theory. But the likelihood of it's happening is very improbable. Video games replace the military environment for misplaced aggression and dreams of blood lusting grandeur. International crime syndicates are a larger threat. Crime uses corruption and compromise more than naked aggression and overt patriotism and propaganda. Thus, a criminal mindset (as Communism has been equated to) is more likely to use criminals to conduct operations rather than use warships to reduce their opponents. That's how Democrats are caught collect campaign funds from non-American places of worship.

What stops Communist China from loading up all of their ships and aircraft with as many trigger pullers as possible for a one way ticket to screw up America beyond recognition (even though they could outfit a hell-rasing force to equal our US population) is that we have the 2nd Amendment. The CCP is made up of human beings not willing to win absolute power at the cost of living in the stone ages. This is where the rest of the world will put China.