US conflict with China arrived at hazardous statures after Washington suddenly requested the close the Chinese Consulate General in Houston. China in reprisal requested to the US to close its consulate in Chengdu, plunging ties between the world’s two greatest economies. The United States under Donald Trump is pursuing a philosophical fight against China. Specifically, the US protection powers have continually incited China by dispatching maritime vessels and a plane carrying warships toward the South China Sea.
The perilous moves by the US Navy could provoke a military encounter between the two countries. The consistent incitement and dangers by the US are pushing the locale in confusion and almost certainly, the US could additionally incite Beijing by assaulting Chinese controlled islands and sandbars.
What if the United States attack?
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is currently and perhaps ever the worst-trained and worst-equipped land army operating in a major power. The PLA has spent just $1,500 to equip an infantryman — not much more than a rifle and uniforms, than a U.S soldier $18,000.
Chinese tanks are mediocre and unlikely to contend with newer US and Russian vehicles. There are no dedicated ground-attack aircraft similar to the American A-10 Warthog or Russian SU-25 in the PLA air force.
At least 30 thousand Chinese marines and 60,000 mechanized seaborne infantries will invade Taiwan, or what is left of Taiwan after an initial war bombing.
China’s Defense System
A recent Pentagon annual report on China pointed out that the military capabilities could have to be countered if such a scenario happened. China has made enormous investments in coastal defences. Their surface-to-ship missiles, first unveiled in the 2008 DF-21 through the 2018 DF-26, the press referred them as “carrier killers.”
The DF-26 is reportedly 2.500 kilometres long enough to reach the US military facilities in Guam. The Chinese missiles fall from the stratosphere vertically, and the US ship security is not intended to fight this kind of attack. Then, there is the DF-ZF Hypersonic glide vehicle piggyback with high missile speed on top of the DF-17, which would potentially kill any current missile system.
The world’s largest navy with a combat force of 350 vessels, including 130 major surface fighters is among Chinese assets. By comparison, the United States. The Navy has 296 ships that can be deployed. China’s ground-based missiles are 500 km in length, compared with the U.S ground-based theatre missiles’ 300-km range.
And if the US attacks, it will face the widest scope in the world of advanced surface-to-air systems, the study says. This increasing arsenal of precise long-range rockets poses a major threat to almost every American, allied, and collaborator base, aircraft, ports, and a military facility in the Western Pacific. The threat of the PLA missile threatens America’s ability to operate openly from future places in the country.
In addition to China’s wider A2 / AD capabilities, including large numbers of Fighter jets fourth generation, advanced systems, modern underwater attackers, the surface to air missile arrays [command, control, communications, computers, information, surveillance, and recognition]. It allows the PLA to place the US and related expeditionary forces in danger, preventing them from effectively operating on sea or in the air within the Chinese objectives’ range of battle.
Are China and the United States already planning a War?
The Pentagon planners are now researching more than ever as the US and Chinese armies are constructing more tripwires around the Pacific Rim that could open the world’s two greatest forces of war.
The Chinese military continues to follow an ambitious modernization strategy to achieve a world-class military by the middle of the century. This will certainly embolden the PLA’s disruptive actions in the South and East China Seas, and everywhere else the Chinese government has deemed vital to its interests. Some US observers agree that the Chinese stealth fighter J-20 is an important weapons platform against American naval ships and aircraft; others aren’t so impressed. The fact is that in aerial dogfights Chinese aircraft do not have to defeat F-18 or F-35s. They only need to keep US forces at a distance from China and make it hard for the United States to strengthen Taiwan.
Since 2008, China has been able to kill US satellites with missiles and could blind them with lasers. In the first minutes of the war between these two, China can destroy US military communications and positioning systems. China also uses the Russian air defence system S-400 to patrol the skies over Taiwan. Whether US countermeasures can beat the S-400 is a military secret, but Taiwan’s security is compromised by the Russian framework.
China also has some low-tech tricks to use to improve the appearance of its already outsized forces. And it begins with a few rubberized things in a backpack. Chinese soldiers can carry their people a 35 kg inflatable tank and have it up in five minutes or less. It can fool observers even nearby. Even rocket launches look like fuel or cargo trucks. China has built them to look like civil trains, making it difficult to bomb trains except in a total war scenario.
Impractical War for The United States
The US could build new arms to crack China’s enormous missile arsenal. Earlier this year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency gave Grumman $13 million to study this issue. That is not exactly the level of funding for the Manhattan-Project. The US Marine claims to be working on a defensive scheme, but there are very few specifics. In theory, lasers can transmit energy against any cinematic weapon at light speed. But detecting, concentrating, and destroying very fast objects presents many unsolved problems.
It will take years for laser guns to change the balance of power on the coasts of China. China’s defensive high-tech strategy, therefore makes war with the United States unlikely in the foreseeable future. This is an immense and urgent mission. It does not only include spending money, but also developing operational principles and new technologies, such as autonomous systems and artificial intelligence, which make it difficult for China to project power. It needs strengthening US alliances that have been atrophied or weakened during President Donald Trump’s administration.
This policy may seem dramatic, as the situation in the West Pacific has deteriorated badly. However, Americans should not delude themselves into thinking that crises are only managed and misunderstanding mitigated. Just as critical as these priorities are — have a cheaper way to sustain peace.
