Military Strategist Shows How China Would Likely Invade Taiwan | WSJ

What was once unthinkable—direct conflict between the United States and China—has now become a commonplace discussion in the national security community as tensions continue to escalate between Taiwan and China. Two big indicators that cause analysts concern is Xi Jinping saying Taiwan belongs to Beijing and will be reunified and their massive military buildup over the past 20 years.

WSJ spoke with the CSIS’s Mark Cancian, who lays out the outcome of a potential war in the Taiwan Strait based on the organization's recent wargames.

Chapters:
0:00 China-Taiwan tensions rising
1:00 Background on Taiwan
2:02 The war game

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#China #Taiwan #WSJ

[wsj]

China plans to boost its military spending by 7.2% this year as Xi Jinping continues to modernize the armed forces.

[Almagesto]

In the Pentagon's underground facilities there is a secret room where trainees play Age of Empires II, Civilization VI, Victoria II, Europa Universalis, Star Craft etc...

[rauserbegins]

Half the people watching this: “A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be catastrophic!”
The other half: “That game looks cool!”

[dalee]

Did I just watch a 70 year old grandpa play a round of board game against himself?

[arijitnaskar]

China casually seeing this and saying - "Hmmm. We should rethink our strategy and avoid this scenario" 🤣

[rugbynimbus]

"Please stay conventional. Please stay conventional. Please stay conventional." - Everyone on the planet

[BulkMasterFlex]

Ok can they actually sell this game though? It looks better than most of the current strategy games 😆

[mpa]

What are the system requirements to play the game?

[Satoshi_Kirisaki]

This is a war where one side talks about fighting but is afraid to fight, While the other side fears it will lose but will not lose.

[jlee]

Surprised the U.S. bases in the Philippines weren't mentioned.

[bernard]

It seems hexagons are the bestagons for war games.

[shresh]

Please sell a simplified version of this board game CSIS :(

[jimbojones]

This analysis seems pretty flawed to me.
It doesn't take into account that North Korea will likely see this as an opportunity to strike South Korea, and maybe Japan, further dividing the US forces.

[PleaseGetReal]

I played one of these hexagon turn-based war games a few decades ago. It took more than 30 minutes to set up and over four to eight hours to finish the game. After playing for three hours, it became too boring, a truce was declared and all the pieces go straight back to the box and never to be seen again.

[forrestallison]

You know the worst part of this whole situation? I've just been to Taiwan for the first time and it's a whole country of extremely polite, quiet, nice people, with a highly functional Democratic government and a beatiful and highly modern country. It's exactly what China could be if it hadn't had the cultural revolution. It's just an amazing place and for this enclave of polite and functional Chinese culture to be lost to the CCP is just a nightmare

[StrongMed]

This is obvious just a brief snapshot at a very complex strategic game, but nevertheless surprised by the lack of mention of nuclear weapons. During direct military conflict between two major nuclear powers, it would seem like this a potential outcome that cannot be ignored.

[dawuid]

Did they roll dices for the outcomes of each battles lol

[FireEverLiving]

They should stream these games in full.

[ShadowMonkey]

WSJ should've leaned into the game board aspect and included animations or representations of the fighting and casualties. This was way too dry.

[catatonicbug]

He didn't even show us his 12-sided dice! For this game, I bet they're made of depleted uranium.