A war would be unlimited because the CCP cannot afford to lose face. And the US cannot stop after the first carrier group was taken down by a swarm of hypersonic missiles. A war by proxy would be more likely, but China has no proxies except NK, and NK is not suicidal.
Most likely they really work together: The Pentagon is part of the NATO, and NATO and China are part of the UN. The wars of the future are not country against country, but UN/NATO/CCP against citizens that don't accept the global government. When Chinese troops enter the US, then with blue helmets and invited by a blue state.
A war would be unlimited because the CCP cannot afford to lose face.
This I wholeheartedly believe. Once the chinese are in, they would be in it to win. Stepping down would lead to the PLA overthrowing the regime.
On the other hand
And the US cannot stop after the first carrier group was taken down by a swarm of hypersonic missiles.
Not if the US doesnt want to.
Why couldn't the u.s. stop though?
And "not stopping" is not equivalent to (nor does it imply) escalating to ever more dangerous weapons.
Why do you think the u.s. is talking about going to "no first strike policy."
The u.s. occupation government wants a war not a nuclear apocalypse.
The u.s. government could care less if the chinese did engage in first-strike with weapons of mass destruction.
In fact, all the more reason for the government to "take the high ground", seize even more power, and radically transition the u.s. into permanent lockdown sovietization "because things are different now unlike the before-before time!"
Why do you think the u.s. is talking about going to "no first strike policy."
The US is the only nation with very small nuclear warheads with adjustable yield that can be launched by artillery. Using them would be a first strike, but not enough to provoke the all ending counter move with all ballistic missiles at once. In theory. But every nuclear power has an automatism implemented to make sure that a counter strike takes place even if the command structure breaks down: The strike starts automatically if specific radioactive elements are in the air. Russia and China made very clear that they will not disable that mechanism, but instead trigger the counter move manually even after a very small nuclear attack. This makes these small warheads useless, and without them, a first strike policy is useless too.
The u.s. occupation government wants a war not a nuclear apocalypse.
Neocon wars are always occupational. They select a small, well-defined theater like Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. Then they make it a permanent war that can go on for decades. But they have to invent a story first that makes them the good ones - weapons of mass destruction or a terrorist breeding ground for example. This limits the potential future war theaters, leaving only North Korea as the baddies. But that would be a too short war because of the logistics.
The other possible war theater is the US itself. With NATO and PLA under UN umbrella on one side, and "domestic terrorists" and "deserters" on the other side. It will take another 10 years until they can start this war, but they are working hard on it.
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