China says it carried out beach landing drills in province opposite Taiwan

[cab67]

3. They're a paper tiger that can squash Taiwan like a bug.

You're probably right, but the PRC's army is larger than ours, its navy has more ships than ours (and it includes a couple of aircraft carriers), and although it's fleet of front-line fighter aircraft is smaller than ours, it includes modern equipment that, for some metrics, outperforms ours. Without the protection of allies, Taiwan would be overrun very quickly.

Part of me worries that the PRC is thinking of taking advantage of what they view as a weak US. From their perspective, they've seen the US withdraw from Afghanistan without success. They see a population so divided that large numbers here might oppose any sort of military action, no matter how justified, just because Biden is president. They also know our economy hasn't recovered from the pandemic.

I'm not expressing things that are - only things as they might be perceived in Beijing. These perceptions might lead some analysts over there that the US would be unwilling or unable (or both) to intervene.


I really, really hope I'm wrong here.