Kathrin Hille, Demetri Sevastopulo
Three decades of investment means China’s military is now close to being able to fight a Taiwan war. In response, the US military is devising new warfighting strategies and strengthening military alliances.
The Financial Times has identified five key military contests that would help define the outcome of a war. Few analysts or officials believe a conflict is imminent, but any clash between the world’s top two powers would have global consequences, triggering the biggest international crisis since the second world war.
‘It’s all about the missiles’
Once mocked by its own troops for having “short arms and slow legs”, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has spent decades transforming itself into a world-class fighting force.
At the heart of this modernisation has been the country’s investment in missiles in a bid to close the gap with the US. “It’s all about missiles,” says Eric Heginbotham, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology security expert and co-author of a Taiwan war game.
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