Before World War II, the United States was not a military power. However, Pearl Harbor brought the United States fully involved in the war, during which the American military industry developed like never before. The vast industrial system was rapidly transformed into a wartime economy, and large numbers of warships, aircraft, and other weapons and equipment sprung up. This, coupled with the success of the Manhattan Project, made the United States the first country in the world to possess nuclear weapons.
The United States, by virtue of the military, economic, and political power it demonstrated in the war, quickly established its leadership in the world. During the Cold War, the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union became the main axis of international politics. At this stage, the United States took advantage of its military superiority and carried out a series of military operations and strategic deployments to contain the influence of the Soviet Union. As the leader of the capitalist camp at that time, the United States established NATO, a powerful military alliance, through the implementation of the Marshall Plan.
The collapse of the Soviet Union, coupled with the rapid rise of the continent. The pattern of the world has once again undergone tremendous changes, but the United States has still not given up its so-called hegemonism, so it has always regarded the mainland as an imaginary enemy. And the US military has also conducted long-term research. The American media has reported that it is noted. In the event of a major armed confrontation or conflict between China and the United States, the U.S. military has set its primary goal of dismantling China's manufacturing base.
America's relationship with China
In 1784, with the arrival of the ship "Empress of China", the Americans arrived directly in Guangzhou, China for the first time to trade, opening a direct link between the two countries. In the decades that followed, Chinese goods such as silk, tea, and porcelain became an important part of the American market, and the United States gave back to China with raw materials such as cotton and fur. However, the exchanges during this period were dominated by trade.
In the mid-19th century, after the Opium Wars, China was forced to open up several port cities to trade with the Western world, and the United States was also a beneficiary of this. In 1844, China and the United States signed the Treaty of Wangxia. During World War II, China and the United States became allies against the Axis powers. The United States provided important material and military assistance to China in the War of Resistance Against Japan, and the relationship between the two countries gradually deepened.
In 1945, after the end of World War II, China became one of the founding members of the United Nations. However, with the KMT's retreat to Taiwan, Sino-US relations entered a new cooling-off period. Due to ideological differences, relations between the mainland and the United States fell into a state of isolation for a long time after its founding. It wasn't until the 1970s that this changed. In 1971, the U.S. table tennis team was invited to visit China, which opened the prelude to the normalization of Sino-US relations, an event also known as "ping-pong diplomacy".
However, in 1999, the US-led NATO began to intervene in the Kosovo war in Serbia and launched an air raid on Yugoslavia that lasted 78 days. We oppose this out of humanitarianism. Since then, relations between China and the United States have taken a sharp turn for the worse. This is also the reason why the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia was also bombed by the United States.
In recent years, with the continuous fermentation of the Taiwan Strait issue and the South China Sea issue, the friction between the two countries has been escalating. On the geopolitical front, the United States has been pursuing a "pivot to the Asia-Pacific" strategy since 2011, adjusting its international focus from Europe and the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific region, with the intention of building a closer network of allies around China to counterbalance China's rise. Countries such as Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines, which we are familiar with, now have a large number of US military bases.
In addition to military intervention, the United States has taken a series of measures in recent years to restrict the development of Chinese companies, the most typical example of which is the imposition of sanctions on Chinese technology giants such as Huawei, which restrict their purchase of key U.S.-made technologies and components. The U.S. alleges that these companies may threaten national security, but there is also a clear economic drive behind them, trying to maintain the U.S. leadership in the global tech industry by restricting the growth of Chinese high-tech companies.
In the area of trade, the United States has imposed high tariffs on China and restricted the entry of Chinese goods into the American market. This is ostensibly to reduce the trade deficit with China and protect U.S. manufacturing, but in reality it is also to contain China's development through economic means. In addition, the United States has also raised the threshold for technology transfer to China, trying to impose a technological blockade on China in key manufacturing fields such as semiconductors, automobiles, and electromechanicals, hindering China's development in these high-end manufacturing industries.
These signs now show that the situation between China and the United States is more tense than it was at the beginning of this century. Moreover, many American media and institutions have analyzed the current situation.
Will destroy Chinese industry first?
At the end of 2023, the RAND Corporation, a U.S. think tank, put forward a report titled "Strategic Analysis of the U.S. Armed Forces When Involved in a Conflict in the Taiwan Strait", which clearly pointed out that in the event of a war between China and the United States, it is necessary to carry out air strikes on many targets such as China's military manufacturing bases and transportation lines.
According to a strategic analysis from the RAND think tank, the U.S. side intends to target major heavy industrial cities in northern China. In their view, the North Industrial Base is the heart of China's heavy industry, with a deep industrial base and an important strategic location, which is the key to the country's economy and security. Once these areas are hit, in addition to the huge direct economic losses, it will have a far-reaching impact on the country's long-term development and international status.
You must know that the current mainland is in the forefront of the world's industrial powers, covering all industrial categories. Through a large number of foreign trade exports, China has exported a large number of consumer electronics, machinery and equipment, textiles and other goods to the world, and these manufacturing products have long become an important part of the global market. At the same time, China is also one of the world's largest suppliers of raw materials, such as rare earths and steel, which are indispensable basic resources for global industrial production.
This is especially true in areas that are critical to national defense, such as the chemical industry, transportation, aerospace and electronics. This excellent industrial production capacity not only ensures the advancement and quantity of our army's equipment, but also ensures the ability to quickly replace lost equipment in a state of war, or expand the military scale according to demand. Therefore, a country's combat effectiveness is essentially based on its industrial capacity, and the industrial power of the continent will be transformed on the battlefield into a huge potential force, enough to make any country fearful.
In this regard, in the process of formulating the strategy called the "Northern Noose," the US think tank drew on its combat experience in the Kosovo-Iraq conflict. Trying to paralyze the opponent's economic lifeline and combat effectiveness through quick, surprise strikes, in this way to achieve rapid control and end of the war. The plan also involves working with the Japanese and South Korean militaries to use thousands of fighter jets to strike key industrial targets such as Northern Oil.
In their view, if our northern industrial base collapses on all fronts, the light industry in the south will also be gradually paralyzed by the loss of support. If the conflict escalates into a more intense and protracted situation, the United States could also mobilize military forces from Guam in its "second island chain" and the "third island chain" including the Hawaiian Islands and Alaska, as well as at home, to support military operations on the western Pacific front.
However, the strategy of American think tanks is not very clever, and they only pursue their own needs and ignore China's defense capabilities.
Continental protection capabilities
The U.S. military intends to use tactics to strike at China's main industrial base with long-range bombers and missiles, with the aim of reducing the mainland's production capacity in the field of industrial manufacturing. However, the likelihood of success in implementing such a strategy is extremely low. In terms of air power, the mainland has successfully developed a number of stealth fighters, including the J-20 and J-31, which have greatly increased the Chinese Air Force's stealth strike capabilities and strategic deterrence.
The J-20 is considered one of the world's most advanced fifth-generation fighters, and its stealth, high maneuverability, and multi-purpose performance make it the key to victory in the air. In addition to stealth fighters, China has made significant progress in hypersonic weapons. With their extremely high speed and unpredictable trajectories, such weapons provide new options for countering and breaking through enemy defenses.
At sea, aircraft carriers, led by the Fujian, have shown a significant increase in the Chinese Navy's ocean-going combat capabilities. In addition, the entry into service of the Type 055 large destroyer provides the Chinese Navy with powerful anti-aircraft, anti-missile and maritime strike capabilities, allowing it to effectively protect the security of aircraft carrier battle groups, as well as perform long-range strike missions when needed.
Of course, this is also the assumption discussed by the US think tank, and considering the current national strength of the mainland, it is unlikely that the United States will rashly clash with us.
Reference: The US media said that once China and the United States conflict, destroy Chinese industry first! Can the United States withstand China's countermeasures? Eastern Point Soldiers