Originally Posted by
West Coast
I believe if/when the Chinese decide to invade, there’s no stopping them short of using of buckets of sunshine which no one will.
An invasion of Taiwan will be no cakewalk for China even if the US does not intervene with a direct military response. I can see no conventional war plan that would not result in massive casualties on both sides. Even if China can successfully invade and hold the coast the inland topography is ideally suited to maintain a long and ugly insurgency against the invading force. China is obsessed with looking strong, a Vietnam scenario on their doorstep is the opposite of that. Finally the PLA still has a huge senior leadership problem. When most of your senior officers are chosen for political loyalty over Military acumen you don't usually get a good result...