[SampleMan]

The Chinese can only hope to make it a lightning fast action that will lead to the immediate capitulation of Taiwan. The People's Liberation Army Navy can't begin to defend its sea lanes. Oil and commerce could be cut off overnight by the USN at points far from China. They would also lose their plastic crap to Walmart business. That would be total war with a nuclear power, but currently they can't compete in a nuclear war, just bluff our lefties.

I'm not saying the Chinese aren't thinking war vis a vis Taiwan, just that I don't think they're stupid, so we shouldn't predict a conventional buildup from them.

[Maceman]

Oil and commerce could be cut off overnight by the USN at points far from China.

WOuldn't China retaliate by cutting us off from the Panama Canal? (Thanks to the brain-dead idiot Carter.)