World War 3: US 'would lose any war' with China as terrifying prediction made

Tensions between China and the US have soared in recent weeks. The two countries are entangled in a trade war that has raged since 2018, yet the most recent aggression comes not in the form of clear political strategy but the digital landscape. Complications have arisen via the China-based social media platform, TikTok, which the US claims is harvesting American user data and compromising national security.

US President Donald Trump had given TikTok’s owners, Bytedance, 90 days to find a US-based owner for the platform or face being potentially banned from the country – a definitively damaging blow to ByteDance considering its 80 million active US users.

With the ban looming, TikTok has now launched legal action to challenge any restriction imposed by Trump.

Technology discrepancies have taken centre-stage in US-China conflicts as of recent, including controversy over Huawei and its rolling out of 5G enabled masts.

Any physical war would, experts argue, likely take place in the Pacific, as the two forces attempt to curb each other’s influence in the waterway that separates them.

World War 3: the war simulation saw the US defeated by China every time

World War 3: the war simulation saw the US defeated by China every time (Image: GETTY)

Pacific: The US has a considerable presence in the Pacific with several territories

Pacific: The US has a considerable presence in the Pacific with several territories (Image: GETTY)

Earlier this year, through a series of simulated war games carried out by the Pentagon, it was found that the US would face defeat in a sea war with China and would struggle to stop an invasion of Taiwan.

American defence forces told The Times that simulated conflicts conducted by the US concluded that their forces would be overwhelmed.

One war game focused on the year 2030, by which time the Chinese navy would operate new attack submarines, aircraft carriers and destroyers.

Added to this was the discovery, through analysis, that Beijing has already made every US base and any American carrier battle group operating in the Indo-Pacific Command region vulnerable to overwhelming strikes from its medium-range ballistic missiles.

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Guam: The US has Guam as an overseas territory which is of considerable strategic importance

Guam: The US has Guam as an overseas territory which is of considerable strategic importance (Image: GETTY)

The Pacific island of Guam, considered of significant strategic importance to the US and a base of its B-2 and B-52 bombers, is now considered wholly at risk.

A US defence source admitted: “China has long-range anti-ship ballistic missiles and hypersonic (more than five times the speed of sound) missiles.”

This means that US carrier groups could not oppose their Chinese counterparts “without suffering capital losses”.

Described as “eye-opening”, the analysis throws into question America’s capability of being the defender of the free world.

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Belt & Road: China is spreading its influence through infrastructure in Africa and Central Asia

Belt & Road: China is spreading its influence through infrastructure in Africa and Central Asia (Image: GETTY)

Xi Jinping: President Xi has propelled China to its present status of a global power

Xi Jinping: President Xi has propelled China to its present status of a global power (Image: GETTY)

All of the simulations found that China would one way or another eventually defeat the US.

Taiwan, the island nation that declares itself the Republic of China just off of mainland China’s coast is regarded as the most volatile issue in the region.

Many believe that events in Hong Kong could be indicative of things to come in Taiwan.

This year, Beijing has upped its military activities in the South and East China Seas.

South China Sea: The waterway is one of the most contested regions on the planet

South China Sea: The waterway is one of the most contested regions on the planet (Image: Express Newspapers)

The region is one of the most hotly contested on the planet, being claimed by several nations in the area.

Sean King, senior vice-president of Park Strategies in New York and an affiliated scholar at University of Notre Dame’s Liu Institute, told Express.co.uk earlier this year that the South China Sea was essentially “already lost” to China.

He said: “Beijing has 80 to 85 percent of it – possession in nine tenths of the law.

“What are we going to do at this point? Go to war with them over it? I don’t think so.”

Donald Trump: The US president has upped his rhetoric against China in recent weeks

Donald Trump: The US president has upped his rhetoric against China in recent weeks (Image: GETTY)

He argued that the only way to not allow China wholly govern the waters was to continue to “practice our air and maritime rights” by sailing through and flying over it.

The biggest driving force behind dominance of the South China Sea, many claim, is the potential of vast reserves of natural resources.

Added to this is the fact that the sea is also an international shipping route with major fishing grounds.

source: express.co.uk