The Blue and The Gold vs. The Red and The Black
No.27
We can dispose of the myth whispered in anxious undertones among the Kiwi chattering classes, that "the Chinese could take over New Zealand with bows and arrows". Firstly, the PLA do not know how to use bows and arrows. Secondly no one knows how a one-child family army such as China’s will fight abroad in sustained campaigns. The Russian army’s performance has been a failure. The Ukrainian war demonstrates that a largely developed urban nation can successfully resist an invasion by one of the authoritarian Eurasian powers. We are living at one of those periods when there is an asymmetry in arms. Shoulder-held missile-launchers can see off tanks. A professional army such as Ukraine's and partly trained militia can beat elite corps and veterans. On current form, the Chinese could not even conquer the Solomon Islands if they wanted to, providing the Solomon Islanders were supplied with arms as the Ukrainians are. Having said that, bio-warfare would be more of a preemptive threat to island nations than an initial nuclear strike, or an opposed landing.
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