[Rockingham]

The author of the article I cited is James Dunnigan, a widely published military expert. Disagree with him if you wish, but derision is a poor substitute for fact-based counter-argument. I note that you do not dispute his account of the grave defects of the Chinese military and their inability to establish and sustain a blockade of Taiwan.

In addition, communist China's internal weaknesses are similar to those of the USSR and her Warsaw Pact allies in their late stage, with riots and much popular discontent due to misrule, poor quality food, and lack of consumer goods. As it was, the leaders of the USSR did not provoke a war because they realized they would lose and would suffer furious discontent from their own people. China's leadership today is in a similar bad position and they seem to know it.

[Reverend Wright]

I’ll stand on what I said.

Anyone still reading this can make their own assessment of some supposed “expert” who is projecting peacetime population behaviors onto a wartime situation where a hostile foreign power is attempting a starvation by blockade to effect a Regime collapse / Regime change.

The natural reaction is going to be extreme nationalism and extreme support for Total War, as well as a willingness to volunteer for combat units as well as sacrifice for the war effort.

And it doesn’t fade after a year or two, either.

For example, look at German industrial production for 1944, despite raw materials shortages, and massive bombing the previous three years.