jupiter said:
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3076947/taiwan-military-stages-exercise-fight-mock-invasion
Hate to raise this possibility, but does China make a play for Taiwan while we're incapacitated? Russia in the Baltics?
Nope. For one thing, while China is playing the '
we're all fine now, nothing to see here' card, the PRC is still fighting the spread of the virus and while young people are
less at risk than older people, the military is a group of men who live and work in dense proximity - an outbreak in the military would be catastrophic, and there's no guarantee the PLA would be immune.
Also, the PRC knows that Taiwan's military has not been degraded by the virus, and is a big problem if the PRC went after the island the problems of taking the island would be very difficult - the Chinese got into a gun battle some years back with Vietnam over the Spratly islands, and it took two battalions of PLA troops to dislodge a handful of 'pirates' from Vietnam who were holding an island China wanted. Invading Taiwan would properly be called '
possible but not feasible',and that's not even discussing the garrison requirements.
That which does not kill me, will try again and get nastier