(Indian Navy via AP) Indian Navy/APĬhina is alarmed by the Quad. The four countries form the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or the Quad. Mountains of equipment and lakes of fuel would have to cross with them,” Ian Easton, a senior director at the Project 2049 Institute, wrote in The Diplomat last year.Īircraft carriers and warships participate in the second phase of Malabar naval exercise, a joint exercise comprising of India, US, Japan and Australia, in the Northern Arabian Sea on Tuesday, Nov. “For Beijing to have reasonable prospects of victory, the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) would have to move thousands of tanks, artillery guns, armored personnel vehicles, and rocket launchers across with the troops. Here are some scenarios of how a Chinese invasion might play out:Ĭhina has the world’s largest navy, with around 360 combat vessels – bigger than the US’ fleet of just under 300 ships.īeijing also has the world’s most-advanced merchant fleet, a large coast guard and, experts say, a maritime militia – fishing boats unofficially aligned with the military – giving it access to hundreds of additional vessels that could be used to transport the hundreds of thousands of troops that analysts say China would need for an amphibious invasion.Īnd those troops would need massive amounts of supplies. Compare that to Mariupol, Ukraine – devastated in the war with Russia – and with an average of 2,690 people per square kilometer.ĭespite its numerical advantages in sea-, air- and land-based forces in the region, China has Achilles heels in each arena of war that would force Beijing to think long and hard about whether an invasion is worth the overwhelming human cost. Taiwan’s population of 24 million people is packed into dense urban areas like the capital Taipei, with an average of 9,575 people per square kilometer. What you need to know about China-Taiwan tensionsĪnd the civilian carnage could be far, far worse. (Photo by Ceng Shou Yi/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Ceng Shou Yi/NurPhoto/Getty Images With the US approving an increasing number of arms sales to Taipei and China sending more PLA warplanes to cruise around the self governing island, military tensions in the Taiwan Strait have been expected to grow. US government documents put the number of killed, injured and missing from both sides during the almost three-month-long Normandy campaign at almost half a million troops.Ī Taiwanese military corvette sails as a Navy soldier stands guard on a vessel, during a Navy Drill for Preparedness Enhancement ahead of the Chinese New Year, amid escalating Chinese threats to the island, in Keelung, Taiwan, 7 Jan, 2022. Many analysts say an invasion of Taiwan would be more dangerous and complex than the Allied D-Day landings in France in World War II.
That means that if China is absolutely determined to take the island it probably can.īut there’s a caveat while China could likely prevail, any victory would come at an extremely bloody price for both Beijing and its adversaries.
Analysts say China has more troops, more missiles and more ships than Taiwan or its possible supporters, like the US or Japan, could bring to a fight. However, it inevitably raises the question: if China tries to take Taiwan, are the United States and its allies able to stop it?Īnd the alarming answer is: Quite possibly not.
It’s the third time Biden has made similar remarks since taking office and, just as on the other two occasions, they were quickly walked back by the White House – which insists its policy has not changed. On his first trip to Asia as United States President last week, Joe Biden gave his strongest warning yet to Beijing that Washington was committed to defending Taiwan militarily in the event of an attack from China.īiden’s comments, which compared a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, appeared to deviate from Washington’s decades-old policy of “strategic ambiguity” on the issue and seemingly raised the possibility of a military clash between US and Chinese forces.
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