China can’t just ‘take’ Taiwan. China probably can’t sustain battlefield logistics in the field more than a week. And the Three Gorges Dam being as janky and massive as it is can be compared to being in a kickboxing match with your balls hanging out of the front of your trunks.
China isn’t afraid of losing people. They have 80 million extra men over there that are completely disposable. They ARE afraid of losing what little working infrastructure they possess.
That’s a lot of mouths to feed. Tough to do it in permanent midnight with no working main arterials and under six feet of water.
The current ongoing conflict between China and India would put the lie to the “can’t sustain battlefield logistics for a week” statement...