The lack of a U.S. carrier in the Pacific may be short-lived if the Navy deploys another in the next couple of months. But it shows how the open-ended operations with Iran are running some American sailors ragged, analysts say, while the Trump administration further retreats from the Asia-Pacific region and focuses on the Western Hemisphere.
“The administration says that the Pacific is supposed to be the most important behind the Western Hemisphere,” said Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Instead, the U.S. is “doing the exact opposite” of its previously expressed goal of pulling out of the Middle East.
It would be indeed incredibly stupid for Xi to try to invade Taiwan. There’s the economic cost and there’s a real possibility that he could wind up in the same situation Trump and Putin are currently in. Lots of those pesky drones creating a stalemate situation.
But authoritarians are being really stupid lately, so we can’t discount the possibility of Xi being as stupid as Trump and Putin.
That’s why he’s playing his cards by deliberately not intervening publicly in the war in Ukraine, counting on chaos in the West all the while making most of the disillusionment among developing countries to align to China.
That a direct invasion of Taiwan would potentially destroy vital assets necessary for the Mainland’s technological advancement.