Is modern China really a ‘superpower’ like the Soviet Union was? I know it’s an imperfect comparison, but it seems hard to imagine the US behaving in the same way with the USSR during the Cold War w.r.t any territory that the Soviets claimed as their sovereign territory.
Might have to do more with the changed international scene where rigid blocs / hard spheres of influence don’t really exist. But I certainly see greater US resolve against China on Qs of shedding strategic ambiguity re:Taiwan than anything against the USSR in their neighbourhood.
Modern times - and TV / internet - probably need to be factored in, though. The US stayed away from intervening in Hungary or Czechoslovakia also because there wouldn’t have been much public pressure given a lack of info. Any Chinese action on Taiwan on the other hand..
China’s economic power obv dwarfs whatever the Soviet Union could muster. But does it have commensurate power and influence to decisively act on what it defines as its own ‘core’ interests? More salami slicing will only strengthen the bonds of anti-China balancing coalitions.
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