Sixty Minutes Australia recently aired a lengthy episode focused on a potential war between the PRC and 29 western nations in the Indo-Pacific region. Based upon a recent military exercise known as RIMPAC which took place off of the Hawaiian shores, the massive wargame, which encompasses air, ground and sea power, is not only designed to ensure that our forces work in concert with one another should war break out but is also meant to send a signal to our potential adversaries that we are ready should a conflict brew up. Needless to say, the most obvious target of a war would be Taiwan, since the PRC has expressly said that it wants to return the island nation to the fold of mainland China some time within the next decade. That said, there are other regions that could come into play should a conflict erupt, among them South Korea, Japan and even The Philippines.
Recently, the Wall Street Journal went so far as to postulate how a conflict would likely take place given what they know about the two sides military preparedness. And, as recently as May, Chinese general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission, Xi Jinping, said that the PRC must be ready to take the island, by force if necessary, no later than 2027. We invite you to spend a few minutes and watch the accompanying video and bone up on what could come should diplomacy fail.