It's so typical of the barbarian states to focus exclusively on military assets and numbers. They, in their atavistic simplicity, are obsessed with sticks and stones and spectacles, and they have no comprehension of China's overwhelming intangible advantages. Simply too nuanced for their comprehension. So even though China has overwhelming firepower any in local theaters, China's greatest weapons are actually:
- Time: It's trite to mention that China remains the fastest growing major economy. In absolute terms, we add more to our economy than anyone else does. Every passing minute incrementally shifts more advantage to us. Furthermore, pertinent to the SCS theatre though is that every passing minute in the SCS means that our 'facts on the ground' are solidified. And possession is 9/10s of the law. In 20 years time, it will be hard to overturn 20 years of factual precedent.
- Initiative: China is the only player capable of 'placing stones on the board', and we do so every turn with yet more island reclamation. VN and PH lack the industrial capacity to reclaim islands anywhere on the scale we do, and the US is not a party to the dispute but an interloper, which is why they can only make reactive moves like shuffling military assets around.
- Resolve: China has the stomach for war, but it's questionable whether the others do. That's because we're defending our sovereignty, and there's too much to lose if we refuse to do so. Conversely, the other states know deep in the hearts that their claims are illegitimate; they're merely trying to subvert our sovereignty. The failure of their expansionist plans is not an existential threat to them, but an outcome they can live with. Especially the case with the US; their whole involvement stems from a 'freedom of navigation' canard that makes as much sense as the justification for invading Iraq (Saddam did 9/11 and has WMDs!), the kind of lie that will haunt them and corrode their morale if a shooting war breaks out. Our bottom line is that much higher than others.
