Image Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Devin M. Monroe
Robert Farley, The Diplomat: Could the US Navy Blockade China in Wartime?
Blockading mainland China presents a range of strategic setbacks for the United States.
Could the United States blockade China’s oil during a time of war? The idea is appealing, as it might enable the United States to force a negotiated settlement to the conflict without having to content with China’s formidable anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) system. But would it work? A new study in the Naval War College Review expresses some skepticism.
China is deeply dependent on foreign oil, and its sea lanes of communication are vulnerable to disruption. This has allowed some analysts to ruminate about how best the United States could exploit this vulnerability during war. Blockades sometimes work, even in great power conflict; the British blockade of Germany in the First World War helped bring the latter to its knees. Although German efforts to establish a submarine blockade of Britain failed in both world wars, they caused no end of trouble to British authorities. In the waning days of World War II, the United States blockaded Japan so successfully that the Japanese economy and military ground to a halt.
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WNU Editor: China will be hurt in a blockade .... the economy for one will shut down. But if you want to defeat China in a war, you are going to need more than a blockade to do it.
Well, if China has a blockade, not only on oil but on many other things, and US has not the same, the China situation will become worse and worse. Not necessarily loosing the war, but possibly loosing the power.
ReplyDeleteAny war between china and the US has to end within hours or the US "loses". Therefore, I'd assume full out nuclear war from both sides. Both countries lose the war. No one in China survives. The US outmatches Chinese nuclear capabilities by far. A few million in the US survive. But they'll die with the rest of us a few years later through slow radiation poisoning. Will Smith will find a cure against the zombies though and some will survive. They will create a super race and a super economy that runs entirely on a post nuclear news economy that talks about Russia collusion. Haha
ReplyDeleteYes, the US could blockade China; it would take a little time to establish but would work. Not sure how oil from Russia would make its way from the North so that's a possible way out; I think the question then comes to how long it would need to be maintained. I would expect negotiations once it's in place, China would not want it there for long.
ReplyDeleteYou don't need a "blockade" Sink a few container ships and their economy would come to a screeching halt. Lloyds of London would see to that.
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