how does that play right into US plan? US doesn't need an excuse to start a war against China, it can just start shooting and find out what happens.
Even in accordance with diplomatic precedent however, US already has 3 separate casus belli:
1. responsibility to protect against a 'genocide', per Yugoslavia.
2. right to preemptively deploy troops to defend a major non-NATO ally, per precedent from Operation Desert Shield
3. right to defend own sovereignty from illicit shipments, same justification as the Opium Wars.
So even if reasons were needed to politically sell a shooting war on China to the public, those reasons already exist.
The only reason it hasn't done so is because it doesn't have the capability to do so.
US wants to provoke China (thought that is pretty much the entire theme on SDF). So China matching move for move wouldn't be very smart, no? And thus acted with restraint for almost 5 years.
But frankly, any US strategist trying to spin the above reasons as justification for war with China should be fired.
- The majority of the world, especially muslim countries, don't think there's genocide.
- Troops are already deployed in PH, Australia, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. No war cause China hasn't attacked anyone. It has strong trade and investments in all of those countries and vice versa. Operation Desert Shield happened after Saddam formally annexed Kuwait.
- Not sure what you mean by Illicit shipments. If you mean fentanyl, know that most of the smuggling now happens via Mexico, not China.
US can't just start a shooting war with China, lol.