This opens the possibility of a second conflict front with nuclear connotations for the US.
So the US is moving beyond economic warfare with China. China will view such US actions as interference in China internal affairs.
Likely the US views China’s economic moves into US’s backyard (Latin America) negatively.
The Washington Postreported Sunday that Congress drafted a plan with input from the White House to authorize $1 billion in military aid for Taiwan annually under the presidential drawdown authority, which allows the US to ship weapons directly from Pentagon stockpiles.
The US has employed this authority to arm Ukraine, and the bulk of the over $19 billion in weapons pledged to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion have come from US military stockpiles. The authority allows the US to get weapons into the hands of Ukraine much more quickly than other forms of military aid that require purchasing arms.
Methinks it is doubtful the recent Xi-Biden talks resolved any such issues.
US-China relations seem to be, to me anyway, deteriorating.
All involved must be watching the situation in Ukraine carefully. In many ways its situation is similar to that of Taiwan.
Does Taiwan have manpower willing to defend their nation? If yes, supporting their effort with military supplies seems reasonable. Will neighbors in the area help? Australia? Japan? S. Korea? Philippines? Are there more?
One suspects China will be far more subtle than Russia. They are well known for long range strategy. Military action less likely. But occupy territory as in the game of Go not out of the question.
With the exception that Taiwan is not technically a sovereign nation (largely a function of their own leadership who, during a period of decades considered their government-in-exile the true heirs to the single nation of China). While the US is obligated to continue to support their autonomy, it would be taking the action of supporting a “breakaway” province in a civil war to support them militarily. It’s true that we have done this in the case of places like Kosovo (which was not directly against an adjacent super-power), but did not assert an opposing military response in the case of Russia peeling off South Ossetia from Georgia or Crimea from Ukraine.
On a pure military to military conflict in the South China Sea (limited to conventional weapons), I doubt if we could decisively win - due to length of supply lines as well as the ability of China to apply overwhelming local quantity of assets. China is not Russia when it comes to the quality of their equipment and I’m guessing when it comes to training as well.
Let’s hope it never comes to a shooting war in that bailiwick.
