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The PLA is more than capable of overhelming the whole of SE Asia without Burmese or Pakistanis. The late Ho Chi Min had advised the Vietnamese people that,"when the USA comes over to wage war, they come by the 100s of 1000s, but when the Chinese come they come by the 10s of millions"

I believe this may be one of their strategy in time of a major war. After occupying SE Asia, they would deploy their IRBMs, SRBMs, and land-based cruise missiles to threaten/cover the whole of the shipping lanes from the Straits of Malacca to Korea

Indeed, the use of "battlefield" and quasi strategic arms to satisfy strategic objectives appears to factor strongly into the strategies of nations such as the PRC, Pakistan and Russia. The US were foolish to avoid investment in 4th generation SRBMs and IRBMs and even more foolish to sign the INF, which the Soviets / Russians broke long ago and other nations are not even signatories to. Idiots here in the states will argue "but what use are SRBMs and IRBMs now that Europe is no longer the forefront of potential conflict" and I believe the scenario you depicted answers this stupid question. As for what the US could do to respond our choices would include having our own SRBMs and IRBMs located in all of our existing Pacific bases, opening up new sites such as via renewal of SEATO (by installation of a pro US anti PRC regime in Thailand if need be) and perfection of the use of ships and aircraft as launch platforms for SRBMs and IRBMs. We've demonstrated satellite launches from the cargo bays of C5As (you simply drogue the rocket out the back and then cold launch from there) so extension of the tactic to missiles is a no brainer.