Who is the most nervous about the confrontation between China and the United States in the Asia-Pacific region?
Of course, there are a number of small Southeast Asian countries, which are the least able to resist the risks of war compared to the two big countries, China and the United States.
At the Asia-Pacific Thousand Miles Forum to be held in Taiwan 2023, former Foreign Minister Yang Rongwen of Singapore mentioned in his speech that United States confrontation with Chinese mainland in the Asia-Pacific region will only lead to one result, that is, the Taiwan authorities' chess piece will be completely sacrificed.
United States colluded with the Taiwan authorities never because of "for the sake of Taiwan good," as they say, but because they maintained regional hegemony.
Singapore's defense minister warned again
In addition to the former foreign minister's warning Taiwan the danger of introducing United States into confrontation in the Taiwan Strait, Singapore Defense Minister Huang Yonghong also issued a warning to United States from July 16 to July 19.
Singapore is one of United States's regional allies in the Asia-Pacific region, so he was invited to participate in the Aspen Security Forum held in United States.
【Huang Yonghong】
However, Huang Yonghong's speech at the forum may not be what United States want to hear, Huang Yonghong said that China's national strength is no longer equal to that of United States, and the military level poses a major challenge to United States' military hegemony.
United States has tried to use its carrier strike groups to deter China in the Asia-Pacific region, and has been forced back by the People's Liberation Army almost every time, suggesting that in China's eyes, the U.S. military's past formidable maritime power has fallen behind the version.
If a war breaks out in the Taiwan Strait in the future, United States still intends to repeat the old tricks, then the result will be "catastrophic," and this result will also be unbearable for the US military.
【U.S. Aircraft Carrier】
Huang Yonghong believes that the US military should avoid the outbreak of military conflict as much as possible, and the many previous naval confrontations between China and the United States have shown that the US military has neither the mind nor the ability to defeat a decisive battle, and if it has to rush the ducks to the shelves, the United States Navy will suffer serious losses and will not be able to prevent the Taiwan from returning to China.
More importantly, once China and the United States start fighting in the Asia-Pacific region, it is likely to cause an uncontrollable chain reaction in the entire region, which is equivalent to a catastrophe for countries in the region such as Singapore.
As long as the United States intends to intervene militarily in China's Taiwan issue, it will inevitably seek to blockade China from the sea, at least cut off China's maritime lifeline, which certainly includes the Strait of Malacca.
【Strait of Malacca】
Not to mention whether United States has the ability to blockade China from the sea, but once the Strait of Malacca is opened, Singapore will suffer, and its import and export trade will be greatly affected, which is unacceptable for a country that is extremely dependent on foreign trade.
And considering that China and the United States are both military and nuclear powers, if the conflict between the two countries escalates and triggers a nuclear confrontation, it will not only be a matter for China and the United States, but the whole world will be involved in it, and there will be no winner in such a large-scale nuclear war in the end.
【U.S. Nuclear Bomb】
Whoever has the last laugh will be forced to face a broken world unfit for human existence.
In Huang Yonghong's view, United States The current strategic deployment for the Asia-Pacific region is unreasonable, and the Pentagon has deployed 60 percent of its military forces to the Asia-Pacific region in order to put pressure on China.
After Trump, who has always emphasized confrontation with China, takes office, the number of US combat units mobilized in the Asia-Pacific region may further increase, but even so, the US military is still the shrinking side in the strategic posture, and the US military has never been able to break the absolute control of the PLA within the second island chain.
【United States Navy】
If military power cannot suppress China, the United States will actually lose its core competitiveness.
United States military power is in trouble
On July 23, 2024, the US media reported that the United States Air Force dispatched B-2A ghost stealth bombers to complete a special exercise in the Pacific waters, in which the B-2A dropped a low-cost guided bomb for the first time and sank a decommissioned target ship.
【U.S. Target Ships】
This is clear evidence that the United States Air Force is seeking to diversify its anti-ship capabilities to bridge the huge gap with China in this area. The United States Navy, which also participated in the exercise, said the anti-ship test confirmed that the U.S. military had found a low-cost anti-ship solution.
In fact, although the US military did not explicitly mention what type of guided bomb the B-2A dropped, judging from the words of senior US military officials, this should be some kind of anti-ship modification of the ordinary JDAM guided bomb.
This is somewhat puzzling, and the US military actually intends to use guided bombs as a low-speed attack means to counter the maritime threat, which is really treating the Chinese Navy as a Somali pirate.
【JDAM-ER制导炸弹】
Even for an extended-range product like JDAM-ER, the maximum gliding range is only 72 kilometers, and it is impossible for the B-2A to safely drop a bomb at this distance and return home, and the PLA destroyer's anti-aircraft detection radar is not blind.
Many military experts said that the so-called low-cost anti-ship program of the US military is a complete gimmick, and the B-2A has almost no chance of surviving if the US military strikes the Chinese Navy like this.
[B-2A Bomber]
Guided bombs are indeed not expensive, but as a carrier aircraft, the B-2A is the most expensive bomber in the world, and whether the strike effect is good or not is not discussed first, and the loss of $2 billion in one sortie is really a bad idea for the United States.
In fact, in the past 10 years, the military construction of the US military has basically been similar and unknown projects, and the research and development of high-precision and sophisticated weapons has not been implemented.
Those who don't know think that the US military has no money, but as a result, their military spending is hitting new highs every year, and they don't know where the United States's military spending is going.
Take the United States Navy as an example, looking at the new warships built like dumplings in Chinese shipyards, it is really envious, the United States Navy originally had the world's largest destroyer fleet, but it was forced to lose its quantitative and qualitative advantages by the shipbuilding industry that has not been enterprising in recent years.
In particular, after the retirement of Burke I and Ticonderoga, which have reached the end of their lives in 2025, the number of capital ships on the surface of the United States Navy will reach a new low.
Under such circumstances, if the United States still tries to suppress China in the Asia-Pacific region through military means, it may not end up very well, as Huang Yonghong said.
Sources:
[1] Defense Minister Dong Jun meets with Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen. Beijing Daily [Citation date: 2024-05-31]
[2] Singapore's defense minister: The Taiwan issue is a "deep red line" that the United States should avoid far away. Baijiahao [Citation date: 2021-11-05]