One thing I found confusing was how China would have a huge geographical advantage over Taiwan / USA. It strikes me that Taiwan has a 100 mile moat, and a ton of mountains / coastal cliffs. It’s essentially a scaled up version of a castle. It’s hard to imagine an easier geography to defend, tactically at least.
I presume it’s the location that’s the issue. While the US would have a harder time resupplying Taiwan, they presumably know this and can build up stockpiles ahead of time. While there’s freight shipping, the cost of doing so would be a rounding error. My understanding is that China is surrounded by enemies and US military bases, so the prima facie difference between US and Chinese mainland’s proximity to Taiwan is moot.
I haven’t studied this conflict much so I’m pretty sure I’m wrong. What am I missing?
You are underrating the geographical closeness of China and Taiwan, and overrating the cost of shipping military materiel continuously to a contested area.
This was a really informative read!
One thing I found confusing was how China would have a huge geographical advantage over Taiwan / USA. It strikes me that Taiwan has a 100 mile moat, and a ton of mountains / coastal cliffs. It’s essentially a scaled up version of a castle. It’s hard to imagine an easier geography to defend, tactically at least.
I presume it’s the location that’s the issue. While the US would have a harder time resupplying Taiwan, they presumably know this and can build up stockpiles ahead of time. While there’s freight shipping, the cost of doing so would be a rounding error. My understanding is that China is surrounded by enemies and US military bases, so the prima facie difference between US and Chinese mainland’s proximity to Taiwan is moot.
I haven’t studied this conflict much so I’m pretty sure I’m wrong. What am I missing?
You are underrating the geographical closeness of China and Taiwan, and overrating the cost of shipping military materiel continuously to a contested area.