the idea now is to blockade the Singapore straight, 3000 kilometers to the south, and cut off Chinese shipping from the world markets...
It almost seems more practically to close the Suez and Panama canals to Chinese trade. I can't imagine the folks that run Singapore would be thrilled at a nose dive in shipping traffic. Would they even play ball?
that is to say, the nation that doesn't produce anything but excel spreadsheets thinks it can win a war
The US manufacturing capacity that continues to exist is entirely bound up in military construction and engineering. It's the one thing we still actually do and do reasonably well.
Does the US stand to benefit from a protracted naval conflict with another superpower? Of course not. But I have no doubt they could do at least as much damage as Russia has endured in its conflict with Ukraine.
I can't imagine the folks that run Singapore would be thrilled at a nose dive in shipping traffic. Would they even play ball?
I mean at that point what're they gonna do, the Singaporean navy has 6 subs and 32 surface ships. Similar but slightly larger for Malaysia. FWIW ships can just bypass the entire Malacca Strait, and it's not nearly as far as being forced to go around the cape.
I mean at that point what're they gonna do, the Singaporean navy has 6 subs and 32 surface ships.
They've got the civilian infrastructure that allows one of the largest and most influential ports in the world to function. Might as well ask what the Longshoreman's Union could do without an army. The US can ruin the port with naval power (in the same way the Houthis curtailed traffic through the Suze), but they can't operate the port by the same means.
Nobody really benefits from a Singapore that ceases to function. Its a lose-lose, and Beijing bureaucrats know that.
It almost seems more practically to close the Suez and Panama canals to Chinese trade. I can't imagine the folks that run Singapore would be thrilled at a nose dive in shipping traffic. Would they even play ball?
The US manufacturing capacity that continues to exist is entirely bound up in military construction and engineering. It's the one thing we still actually do and do reasonably well.
Does the US stand to benefit from a protracted naval conflict with another superpower? Of course not. But I have no doubt they could do at least as much damage as Russia has endured in its conflict with Ukraine.
Lol not ships or tanks
I mean at that point what're they gonna do, the Singaporean navy has 6 subs and 32 surface ships. Similar but slightly larger for Malaysia. FWIW ships can just bypass the entire Malacca Strait, and it's not nearly as far as being forced to go around the cape.
They've got the civilian infrastructure that allows one of the largest and most influential ports in the world to function. Might as well ask what the Longshoreman's Union could do without an army. The US can ruin the port with naval power (in the same way the Houthis curtailed traffic through the Suze), but they can't operate the port by the same means.
Nobody really benefits from a Singapore that ceases to function. Its a lose-lose, and Beijing bureaucrats know that.