01-26-2017, 08:00 PM
(01-26-2017, 04:22 PM)SomeGuy Wrote:Quote:How does the US sink one of China's artificial islands? Conventional weapons can't sink an island. A nuke would do it neatly, though, with minimal loss of life.
Gibberish. How does an island sink, nuke or no?
Quote:How does China sink a US carrier? They don't have the conventional forces to do it.
The US Navy begs to differ. Conventional missiles can sink ships just fine.
Quote:Of course, there are nonmilitary weapons that might be equally devastating. China could release their immense reserves of dollars in a way that would result in instant painful inflation in the US. It would of course hurt China too. Similarly with the US imposing tariffs on Chinese goods.
How would selling their US Treasury holdings, in isolation, do what you suggest?
China's artificial islands are only a couple miles long. A reasonable size nuke would disperse most of the sand back into the waves.
A US supercarrier won't sink from a single conventional hit - even some WWII carriers took multiple kamikaze hits and survived - plus it has an entire task force and air wing to protect it. In a conventional sea battle, the Chinese navy wouldn't get close.
The laws of supply and demand apply to currency exchange rates along with everything else. If China dumps a massive supply of dollars onto the market by selling them, they become cheaper relative to other currencies and relative to goods. That means everything else becomes more expensive in terms of dollars - inflation.