In September Australia announced that it was cancelling a contract to purchase conventionally powered submarines manufactured in France. Australia had already spent about US $1.8B on the project. Instead they will build their own nuclear powered submarines based on US designs and using US nuclear power technology.
This means that Australia will be the first country without nuclear weapons to have nuclear powered submarines.
In October Pelosi went to Taiwan.
Now we have the announcement that we will sell Japan approximately 1,000 Tomahawk missiles of all configurations. This is a VERY big deal. Japan has the world's second most powerful blue water Navy after the US. With Tomahawks, they become significantly more powerful.
China is a continental power. The resources their economy is utterly dependent on must pass through what they call 'the first island chain'. The first island chain from north to south is: the Kurile islands, the Japanese home islands, the Ryukyu islands (Okinawa), Taiwan, the Philippines, and Borneo. Without these resources, the Chinese economy rapidly de-industrializes.
The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) is large but with very limited power projection capability. They have been building a series of artificial islands in the South China Sea to try and increase this but have been met with little success. These islands are not self-sufficient and have little to no real military value. Some are actively falling back into the sea and require near continuous maintenance to keep them above sea level.
85+% of Chinese oil has to pass through one of three straits (Malacca, Sunda, or Lombok). They have a combined width of just over 50 NM. The straits are controlled by Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. The PLAN is not capable of holding even one of these straits open to keep the oil flowing. The newly completed pipeline from Russia would provide some oil but not enough to keep the lights on.
The US, Japan, and, to a lesser extent, Britain & Australia are maritime powers. With the completion of these sales, any one of these four countries could independently END the Chinese economy without ever killing a Chinese citizen.
I can hear some of you thinking, "But, but, but, China is a nuclear power." Yes, but their use of nuclear weapons would only hasten the death of their economy and turn the whole world against them. About the only thing the Chinese military is truly useful for would be preventing an outside power from physically occupying parts of China.
Now don't get me wrong, China can kill a lot of people and break a lot of things but it still wouldn't change the outcome. China as they know it would be gone and the CCP with it.
WWG1WGA
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)