“Wait til the Malaca Straits ChiCom “Toll” is implemented.”
China doesn’t have total dominion over the TAIWAN Strait, much less Malacca.
Malacca is the USN’s chokepoint for China.
They have proposed building a canal across the Kra Isthmus. This would give direct access from the Gulf of Thailand to the Adaman Sea, by-passing Malacca.
Yes, Malacca is the USN’s chokepoint for China for now.
As China moves away from shipping fossil fuels to getting them from Siberia AND building up its solar capacity, that choke hold gets less and less powerful in my opinion.
What puzzles me is the mainland’s hubris - I don’t get the haste that Xi is displaying. China before Xi was expanding its commercial and soft influence without any need for military pressure.
And if it had not put the 7 dashed line, then everyone would be happy to let China quietly rise and dominate