Noel King

And while we haven't seen it stress tested yet, seems to be much more potentially capable of

mass munitions production than the American system is.

So while America has better weapons, China may have the ability to get those weapons out there more.

You think of something like the Germans versus the Americans in World War II.

The German tanks, the German planes were in many ways superior, but the Americans were putting 20 tanks on the battlefield for every German one.

Industry is a force all of its own.

But even the quality of American weapons, I think, is coming into some doubt as a result of the Iran war, because we're seeing that the Iranians, with their dug-in positions, with their preparation, even with their air defense being completely overwhelmed by American power, they've got surprising survivability.

Like, much more, I think, has survived that American and the Israeli onslaught than first anticipated.

That's partially because Iran's a big place.

It's got a lot of places you can really dig stuff in.

But it may also be that America has been overestimating its own capabilities, even against a country that isn't a peer opponent.

OK, so I hear you saying that China is paying attention to what the U.S.

can do militarily because it is thinking, what would we do?

What would China do if the U.S.

attacks us the way it attacked Iran?

Is that what's going on here?

I think it's double-sided, because on the one hand, China can imagine itself as being the victim of air power, the victim of this overwhelming force.

And so it's asking itself, like, could the Americans kill our leadership?

And the answer to that is probably not, because Chinese air defence is a lot better than Iranian.

But it's also looking at it and saying, well, you know, what if we want to take Taiwan?