Extra and secondary sanctions against China and any company trading with Russia.
While China and Russia has UN veto, that's a pipe dream. The "world" can't even make unified sanctions on Israel, there's 0 chance Russia can be called out economically.
In addition to sending tomahawks and drones against Russian factories and depotss. Unfortunately they can still escalate further.
They have already sent their most potent weapons aside from their prototype hypersonic missiles. If NATO fires directly on Russia, there will be immediate ww3. On the other hand if they fire from Ukraine, Russia will simply destroy their ammo stores as the weapons are heading into Ukraine.
Ukraine has little/no air cover, so you're talking about prime NATO hardware like Taurus getting destroyed in a train or in a warehouse, when in the intended NATO role, those weapons are supposed to be adequately defended with CAP and GBAD.
If the Westerners see no deterrence, they will only move forward until they reach a deal favorable to them,. Even more so with Trump, who built an image by promising deals through force.
They ignored Russia's military buildup and all of Russia's demands and red lines and continue to ignore them even after Russia intervenes in Ukraine.
We need to be realistic, they will ignore China's demands too.
China is tech rushing energy autarky, higher than US 5th gen production rate and 6th gen. Not to mention the whole low altitude economy thing.
I don't think China will make any demands from the west aside from at gunpoint.
The strategy now is to wait until the west isn't profitable anymore, then use the military.
China still does not use its military power to decisively help any ally.
Random Middle Easterners are not China's allies... If Hezbollah is Chinese ally, they would have been using Chinese ISR architecture.
Russia is an actual ally and it interfaces heavily into China, hence their strong battlefield performance even in large conflicts. Assad isn't.
So, without deterrence, once Russia is neutralized or bought,
You are not familiar with Chinese geopolitical strategy then. Russia is as much of a red line as Manchuria is. They're China's energy battery and reserve breadbasket.
the West will move against a militarily isolated China that they plan to manufacture in the global theater. The West has become arrogant and passionate, like a child that knows no limits, but this is because it still has at its disposal the intact strength of past centuries, without suffering any casualties even after so many wars like Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine...
That's why I don't think that China's strategy of ignoring all global conflicts will be sustainable. At some point, either China will start to intervene and defend its interests or it will have to capitulate.
But China isn't ignoring global conflicts. It played cards to ensure Russian loyalty, began moves to destabilise US in the middle east, and sniped out the EU economy, which I should remind you is 50% of NATO's economic power, on paper at least.
Even right now, China is hard at work on crippling the India problem. It's not like they're sitting around doing nothing just because they're not actively bombing anyone. If we take war is an extension of politics as a truth, then the reverse also applies in that politics is an acceptable way to fight without every action requiring open war.
