This Makes China Impossible to Invade
It is now or never. China needs to be taken down, and you are responsible for getting the job done. This mission will take all of your cunning, an immense amount of firepower, and a strategy that will simultaneously cripple the economy and society of one of the most powerful countries in the world. However, even though you control the largest invasion force ever gathered, there is still a 99.9% chance you will fail. It is time to gather your troops, arm your weapons, and launch your aircraft because China is waiting to crush you. Before you can even begin your invasion, you need to move forces into striking position. When you
try to do this, you quickly realize you’ve run into a Chinese roadblock, both literally and figuratively. China is quickly becoming one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. Recent reforms and regulations put on tech companies by the Chinese government have shifted the sector towards self-reliance and increased innovation. This plan has allowed the Chinese tech industry to produce the most powerful memory chips and fastest databases in the world. So, something you need to take into consideration before you invade China is that they have the capability to wage cyberwarfare and hack into even your most secure databases. The Chinese government also has around 68 military satellites in orbit around the planet. These satellites give them a bird's eye view of what’s happening in the world and allows
them to keep an eye on their borders. A mass mobilization of troops would quickly be spotted by either routine military surveillance or by Chinese assets located around East Asia. The element of surprise is not an option, as there is no way your forces could sneak up on China. On top of constant surveillance in the region, China also controls much of the infrastructure going into and out of the country. For example, one of the centerpieces of President Xi’s foreign policy is the Road and Belt Initiative that connects China to important trading hubs around the world. What this means is that any force spotted along the route or in any of the ports China uses for trade would quickly get reported to the government.
China has been spreading its influence throughout its home region and across the world through its trade network, tech services, and manufacturing capabilities. All of these things have allowed China to gather allies in unlikely places. These partnerships may not be with foreign governments but with companies and influential associates with which China does business with. What it comes down to is that even if many governments around the world do not like China, they rely heavily on them for many things. This gives the nation
leverage and means that although they may not have military bases spread throughout the world like the U.S. and NATO, they almost certainly know what’s going on at all times. Since there is no reason to hide your attack, you decide an invasion concentrated at specific points along the border is the way to go. If you can focus your forces on a unified attack, they can lay waste to whatever opposition China can muster.
China is massive. Its land border extends 13,670 miles, which is both good and bad for your invasion plans. The good thing is there are a lot of entry points; the bad thing is that you have to choose the most strategically valid one, and there aren’t really any good options. China is composed of around 3.7 million square miles of land, and as you’ll
soon find out, the sheer size of the country is going to be a problem for your invasion effort. China has almost 20,000 miles of coastline, which means that your Navy will play a major role in the invasion effort. However, before you can coordinate your attack and pinpoint the exact method of invasion, you need to study the geography and topography of the country. As you unfold the map of China, your heart sinks. The complex environments and climates of the region are going to make the invasion much more difficult than you could have possibly imagined. The scariest part is that you haven’t even thought about how to deal with the Chinese military.
As you brainstorm with your generals, your first thought is that a land invasion is the best course of action since you can just drive your troops and tanks right into the heart the country. But as you look for the best point to cross the border, something becomes abundantly clear: entering and traveling through China will be no easy task. An invasion from the south made sense as it would allow you and your forces to reach Hong Kong and deal a mighty blow to the Chinese economic sector. From there, your army could continue up the coast, seizing major ports as you went. After Hong Kong, Shanghai would fall. Then your troops would make a beeline straight for Beijing, where you would
capture President Xi and force a surrender. Once the coast was secured, you could move inland, encircling any remaining Chinese forces and bringing the entire country to its knees. Unfortunately, this is not a viable option. The problem with entering the country from the south is that your army would need to traverse thick jungles full of diseases and locations where the enemy can hide and ambush you. Like the United States found out in Vietnam, fighting a war in dense jungles and forests is never easy. If you were trying to take China quickly,
your efforts would be hindered as your forces are bogged down. These areas with rich vegetation would make it hard to move tanks and other vehicles across the landscape, while air support would be pretty much useless as the canopy would hide enemy troops. On top of that, Chinese forces could utilize the jungle as the perfect environment to conduct guerrilla warfare. In this scenario, your men and ground forces slowly move through the dense vegetation. A commander gives the signal to stop. All is quiet except for the sounds of birds singing in the
trees and the roar of a leopard somewhere in the distance. The commander is about to give the signal to move forward when a grenade lands at his feet. He looks down, eyes wide, and immediately jumps on top of the explosive device to save his men. The grenade detonates, sending body parts everywhere. Chinese soldiers fire from the trees and pop out of holes dug into the ground. A nightmare full of blood and carnage unfolds in the jungles of
China as your soldiers are torn apart in the crossfire of several Chinese units. And while your forces are being killed by Chinese guerilla soldiers and a plethora of diseases, the bulk of the enemy army launches a counter-offensive that obliterates your invasion plans. Clearly, attacking from the south comes with great risks. So, you scrap that plan and look for another entry point for the time being. What if you adjusted slightly and attacked from the southwest? There is a lot less jungle in this region, but you would end up running into a much bigger problem. As your army approaches from India and Nepal, a massive fortification looms on the horizon. The Himalayan mountains act like a natural wall that protects the lands of China. There
would be no practical way to get an army over its peaks, and you can forget about moving vehicles through the area. There are passes, but it would be incredibly slow going, and your forces would be decimated in choke points and kill zones. The Himalayas are so massive that they would also prevent aircraft like attack helicopters from passing over them. The weather in the region can change in an instant, and wind gusts could blow helicopters and planes off course and into the side of a mountain.
Attacking China through the Himalayas is just not an option. You could theoretically airdrop men on the other side of the mountain range and then proceed further into China from there, but what you would find on the other side is the extraordinarily large Tibetan Plateau. The problem with dropping troops into this region of China is that it’s wide open. Your main force would be composed of infantry due to the fact that tanks and artillery wouldn’t be able to make it over the Himalayas, and airdropping armored vehicles is a tedious and time-consuming tactic. This would end up being a problem as Multiple Launch Rocket
Projector vehicles and Chinese artillery will be waiting for you on the other side. Your journey through the country to the administrative centers of China would be over before it began. The very fact that this part of China is a hilly series of grasslands means that the enemy will see your forces coming from miles away. The Chinese army would already have set up defensive positions atop the hills with vantage points that allow them to track your forces and fire with deadly accuracy once they were in range. Crossing the Tibetan Plateau by foot would result in
a massacre, especially with minimal armored vehicles or tanks for support. Once again, you decide to scrap the plans for an invasion from anywhere along the southern China border. What about the west? Could your forces plow through the border between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan? Before you could even consider this as an option, you would need permission from these countries to move your army through their lands. This may be easier said than done, as China has a lot of influence in the region, and it would not be wise for any of these nations to get on their bad side. This is especially true for Pakistan, which would likely aid China during an invasion as the two countries are closely allied.
However, let’s suppose you did manage to send forces into China from the west; what would they be greeted with after they crossed the border? Unfortunately, your army would find itself in a vast and unforgiving desert. The Tarim Basin, along with parts of the Gobi Desert, make up much of western China. The basin itself is 343,000 square miles of almost completely inhospitable land, which your forces would have to travel through before they could even get close to a major Chinese population center. It would be slow going as your transports become stuck in the
sand and your troops run out of supplies. Getting resources to the region would be possible, it’s almost guaranteed that your supply lines would be harassed by Chinese forces as you move forward. All the Chinese would have to do to defeat an attack from the west would be to disrupt the supply lines going to the invading force. The desert would consume your entire army if it’s not supplied with fuel, food, and other vital resources. Around 30% of China is desert, and most of this landscape is concentrated in the western half of the country. Your forces would have a long way to go before they could locate sources of food, water, and basic necessities within the borders of China.
And the worst part would be that as your army tried to escape the dry landscape of western China, they would be bombed by the Chinese airforce, sieged by artillery, and decimated by long-range missiles. Even if your forces could make it through the desert, they would still have a long way to go before they reached any of the administrative centers or economic hubs, which all sit near the east coast. Attacking from the west would not only be deadly but a huge waste of time. This leaves only one other land route into China: through the northern border. However, this, too, isn’t really an option. For one thing, your entire army would need to pass through Russia in order to reach Mongolia, both of which have close ties with China. It would be very unlikely that either of these nations would allow an invasion force to pass through their lands without some kind of confrontation. However, if your forces could hypothetically enter China through
their northern border, they would once again be met with desert. This is after they had already passed through the frozen hellscape that is northern Russia. And as history has shown, any invasion force that tries to cross Russia is only met with death and loss. Then again, you could always give up your land-based invasion options knowing that no matter which way you enter from, your forces will sustain heavy casualties due to the landscape and military response of China. What would happen if you were to attack by sea?
As the coast of China comes within sight, your naval fleet is met by a barrage of artillery and missile fire from the mainland. China deploys huge numbers of heavy weapons to slow your approach, and it works. The skies are filled with Chengdu J-20 fighter jets and Xian H-6 bombers. Fire rains down on top of your naval ships as they desperately try to fend off the onslaught of aerial attacks.
As your fleet launches countermeasures to stop the bombardment from the air and land, the Chinese Navy swoops in from behind. Dozens of destroyers fire their cannons at your ships, subs launch torpedoes from beneath the Pacific’s waves, and corvettes run circles around your damaged vessels, causing even more mayhem. An invasion of China by sea is not recommended, as you would be putting all of your eggs in one basket. The transport ships carrying your tanks and vehicles sink to the bottom of the ocean from the damage they sustained. Your soldiers drown in water that has
turned red with their blood. Before the transports can even reach the shore, they are blown to smithereens by China’s defenses. The main problem with launching an invasion along the coastline of China is that it would be slow, and for every moment your troops spend waiting to make landfall, more and more of your forces are annihilated by Chinese countermeasures. When you look at all of the data, there is really no good option to get your troops into China. You decide that the only possible way your invasion stands a chance is if you attack from multiple sides at once. The most viable option would be to attack from the south and along the coast. However, this is still a lot of land and sea to cover. You would need to have enough men,
vehicles, and resources to take on the entire Chinese military, which is only growing by the day. Unless you had some serious help from allies, this would end up being an impossible task. This is because China has the second most powerful military in the world after the United States, and it may even overtake the U.S. in the near future. So, now that you have decided on a plan of attack, what should you expect from the Chinese military when your troops cross their border? Unfortunately for you, the time to invade China has passed. Over the last two decades, China has increased its military spending by 740%. This means the country dedicates about 230 billion dollars to its armed forces annually,
and this number only seems to be increasing. If you tried to invade China 20 years ago, you might have been successful, but now there is very little hope you will be able to traverse the country’s defensible lanscape, defeat its military, and subdue the nation’s population. Something that is very important to keep in mind is that even though China spends about four times less on its military compared to the U.S., this does not mean that the
Chinese military is four times as weak. China has access to much cheaper labor, which means they can build more weapons and vehicles while spending less money. China also has been very strategic about how they want their military to operate and what they consider valuable assets. The government has very little interest in policing the world and
therefore has spent less money on foreign military installations than NATO or the United States. What this means is that over the last several years, China has been hyper-focused on building a military that is very effective at protecting its own borders. China’s military policy is mostly defensive at this point in time, which means they are ready to defend against any type of invasion. Almost all of China’s military assets are in the country or nearby. If you tried to invade China, it would not take long for the government to mobilize and deploy military forces to your location. When your troops come out of the jungles and forests of southern China, they are met by several battalions equipped with some of the 5,250 tanks China has at their disposal. Most of
these armored behemoths are Type 99 tanks. China also has other older and less effective tanks, but the fact that your army has just been bogged down in rough terrain means that the Type 99s are more than capable of decimating your initial strike teams. As your soldiers break through the treeline, an iron rain falls from the sky. China has 5,800 artillery cannons, both mobile and stationary, along with approximately 3,160 Multiple Launch Rocket Projector vehicles such as the PHL-03. Your men try to find cover, but it seems no matter where they go, there is some form of Chinese firepower targeting them.
You call in air support, but your bombers are blown out of the sky by a contingent of the 1,200 fighters and interceptors the Chinese Air Force has at their disposal. In return, a squadron of Z-10 attack helicopters briefly blocks the sun as they fire missile after missile into your dwindling ranks. When you first planned an invasion of China, you thought it’d be easy. You were told that their military consisted
of mostly outdated weapons and rusted tanks. Unfortunately, this is no longer true. Your coastal incursion isn’t fairing any better than your land forces. The Chinese Navy has 41 destroyers, 2 aircraft carriers, and 80 submarines, all of which were close to home when your ships entered the South China Sea. These ships are supported by even more helicopters and bombers. Things are looking worse and worse as you realize that you’ve made a terrible mistake. China wasn’t just difficult to invade; it was impossible.
You meet with your generals far behind the front lines to come up with a new plan. Your invasion force is almost entirely decimated. As you look at maps of the battlefield, you hang your head in shame. Suddenly sirens begin to go off. There is an incoming projectile, but it’s too late.
The Chinese launched a Dongfeng-17 hypersonic missile at your command center. The missile travels five times the speed of sound and at a low altitude, making it difficult for radar to detect. Before you have time to react, the Chinese hypersonic missile slams into your bunker and detonates, putting an end to your invasion and any future plans you had for trying to secure the country. But what if everything went your
way and you not only put boots on the ground but defeated the Chinese army? What this would mean is that you somehow dealt with 2.5 million active and reserve service members. This is a gigantic army to overcome, but let's say somehow you managed to pull off a miracle. The problem is that even if you have destroyed China’s traditional military, there are still around 620 million other men and women who are fit for service. The Chinese government has an almost endless pool of people to conscript into fighting your invasion force, and they wouldn’t have to try too hard to convince the general populace. Since the Chinese government controls all information and policies in the country, all they would need to do is tell their people to fight and die for their homeland, and you would have a population of around 1.4 billion, taking up any weapon they could find
and resisting your invasion. Granted, many of the 1.4 billion people who live in China wouldn’t be able to fight because of age or health conditions, and some wouldn’t fall for the propaganda, but even so you would have to fight around half a billion partisans to gain full control of the country. And even if your soldiers have better weapons and training, sheer numbers in this conflict would eventually win. It’s highly unlikely your invasion force would be able to defeat the second-largest military in the world, a population of over a billion, and a government that has complete control over the media its citizens consume. This last factor means that unifying its people and ramping up wartime production would be streamlined and almost instantaneous. We don’t condone authoritarian rule or dictators,
but when decisions need to be made, and things need to get done during a military conflict, it happens much more efficiently when there are no checks and balances within the government. This brings us to another reason why China would be impossible to invade. When taking over a country, the opponent's military is not the only thing that needs to be taken into consideration. The economy and the ability to transition from manufacturing consumer goods to weapons and military vehicles is a key factor. China is set up to make this transition rapidly. In fact,
if China even had the slightest suspicion that they were going to be invaded, every factory and manufacturing center within its borders would be put on high alert. The government would make sure businesses had everything they needed to ramp up wartime production. And with an enormous workforce, weapons, tanks, aircraft, and missiles would be produced in staggering numbers. Also, China has an ace up its sleeve, especially if you plan on invading from the sea. Its naval might is most certainly formidable. Any invasion force traveling across the ocean would have a tough time reaching the shore. But what makes their
Navy even more dangerous is that it can be grown rapidly at a moment's notice. China has the biggest shipbuilding industry in the world. It manufactures around 40% of all ships on the ocean. And although most of the vessels constructed are cargo ships, it would not be that difficult for China to shift its shipyard production towards more military vessels. Again, all it would take is an order from the government and a promise to deliver whatever materials are necessary to get the job done, and the workers would do the rest. The construction of a destroyer and a cargo ship is, at least logistically speaking, very similar. The design is obviously going to vary greatly, but the actual building
process will remain relatively the same. And in times of war, China wouldn’t just require shipyards to switch gears and focus on military manufacturing; everything from metal workshops to electronics factories would start churning out everything China needs to win a war. Right now, you’re probably thinking: well, if I can’t beat their military, perhaps I can cripple China’s economy and force them into submission. But even this wouldn’t work. One of the reasons that China is so resistant to an invasion is because, for the past several years, the country has been moving more and more towards self-reliance. China produces a massive amount of energy domestically. Right now, around 55% of China’s energy production
comes from burning coal, and although some of this coal comes from other nations, such as Indonesia and Russia, China also has several other energy sources to keep production going. If China was invaded, the government would be more than willing to shut off power to residential buildings and rural towns to allow for continuous energy flow to factories and military bases. However, they might not even need to do this. Current estimates suggest that around 40% of China’s energy comes from renewable sources within its borders. On top of that, China has over 25 billion barrels of oil in reserve that it could tap into in case of emergency, like if it were being invaded.
So, even if you were trying to cripple the manufacturing capacity of China to make it easier to invade, they could still last a very long time before production would slow down. That being said, crippling the economy of China would be incredibly hard to do, even for the most powerful nations in the world. China has positioned itself to be invaluable to many other countries, including the United States. Goods from China are shipped worldwide, and there are more electronics being made within their borders than anywhere else on the planet.
China’s GDP was around 17.73 trillion dollars in 2021, but it also consumes a lot of products from the rest of the world. What this means is that if you were trying to weaken China economically before invading, you would not make many friends. Your war with China would likely be over long before it started, as even countries who do not necessarily agree with Chinese practices are still heavily reliant on their goods and economy. An invasion of China would almost certainly lead
to a global economic collapse, which means unless you could get all of NATO and Russia on your side, they would probably end up fighting against you to protect the global economy. To put this into perspective, China hosts 136 of the Fortune 500 companies, 351 of the largest companies in the Fortune Global 2000, and more than 200 technology startups, each valued at over $1 billion. There is just no way around it; in the current global economy, China is a powerhouse, and if their economy were to collapse, which does not seem likely, it would throw the world into chaos. And even if you did somehow manage to blockade all of China’s ports and keep goods from flowing into and out of the country, China has pretty much everything it needs to fight a sustained war within its borders. Its natural resources are vast,
it has an enormous labor pool, and it can feed its population indefinitely. Almost all arable land in China is being used to grow crops. It’s the world's number one exporter of rice and also grows enormous quantities of wheat, corn, soybeans, potatoes, pork, and fish. The population would not go hungry, which means that the main focus of the average citizen would be to defeat the invaders who are trying to take over their homeland. At this point in time, China is impossible to invade. This hypothetical war you just waged
on China to seize its land was a complete and utter failure, which is what would happen to anyone who has dreams of invading the country in real life. Even though China could repel an invasion all on its own, it wouldn’t have to. North Korea and China technically have a mutual aid and cooperation alliance, and even though North Korea needs China much more than the other way around, the Hermit Kingdom would be able to offer some support. Russia would also likely step in if it wasn’t too busy waging an unjust war against one of its neighbors. What it comes down to is that the geography, economy, and military of China make it impossible to invade. For years China has been positioning itself to be indispensable to the rest of the world while simultaneously spreading its influence and gaining power. China might
not have the biggest army in the world, but it doesn’t need it to fend off an invasion, as wartime production can be ramped up at a moment's notice. Plus, no one would dare invade the country out of fear of what it might do to the global economy. Then again, if things really went bad, and China found enemies closing in from all sides, there is always plan B. China has a strict defense-only use of nukes policy. So, the moment someone steps onto their soil with malicious intent, China has 350 nuclear warheads that it can use to vaporize the enemy. At the beginning of your conquest,
there was a 99.9% chance you would fail. That .1% didn’t mean you would necessarily win, but that everyone would lose. Because once nuclear war starts, it’s game over. Now watch “China's Plan to Take Over the World.” Or check out “These Countries Are Impossible to Invade.”
2023-04-10 21:13
