The U.S. Navy Needs To Admit It Can’t Outbuild China

[rangerrebew]

The U.S. Navy Needs To Admit It Can’t Outbuild China
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By Marcus Hellyer
January 28, 2021
U.S. Navy photo by MC2 Brandon Martin
 

The most often quoted line of the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu is that ‘supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting’. By that measure, the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army have shown themselves to be excellent by winning a bloodless battle with the U.S.. China’s anti-access/area-denial strategy has already broken the U.S.’s willingness to operate close to China’s coast in a conflict. It won that first battle through asymmetric means when it couldn’t match the U.S. military in conventional might.

Now it appears China is moving to win a second bloodless battle by using its industrial strength to outbuild the U.S. Navy in conventional military power and push the U.S. further away from the western Pacific and its allies there. The goal of these two battles is to win a bloodless war by making the cost to the U.S. of intervening to counter an invasion of Taiwan too high.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2021/01/28/the_us_navy_needs_to_admit_it_cant_outbuild_china_658227.html

[PeteS in CA]

Thank Clinton, the "Peace Dividend", and base closures (e.g. Mare Island).

[Fishrrman]

The United States is not going to get into a military confrontation with China over Taiwan.
Them dayz... are over.

It's not a matter of whether or not China will make its move on Taiwan.
It's a matter of when...