Replies

"To put nukes into Taiwan would be the last straw that would break Chicom restraint and war would result."

Maybe, but I think it would depend on how many nukes appeared there and how suddenly.

"Massive tariffs on Chicom goods would hasten, not deter, Chinese attacks upon us. That's just what triggered the Japanese attacks in the whole Pacific rim in 1941. We cut off their supplies of oil and steel and bam! here came Pearl Harbor and four years of war."

That is another possibility, but it would come out of a "use it or lose it" attitude on their part. If we turn to large scale protectionist policies their advances on us militarily would slow down and eventually stop. Then the gap would begin to widen. At that point they'd either start the war or give up on ever beating us. But that's assuming their free trade puppets don't reverse the trend back towards free trade. Personally, I think war is inevitable. Better that it start much sooner while we are stronger, than later after free trade policies have hollowed us out too far to be victorious.