Actually, if you really wanted to hurt your adversary, just set off a few nukes in the atmosphere above the major industrial centers and you will fry their entire electrical grid and set them back to the stone age within a few seconds.
Nuclear fuel for reactors is stored in bunkers nearby. They can withstand a nuclear blast.
The first evidence for the Chinese remainder theorem came from a third century book. Even within the book there was no clear source for the mathematician who came up with it.
Let's say taiwan for example, they don't have nukes and can't really strike the three gorges, but there are a ton of nuclear plants in range like fuqing for example.
Merics is extremely good and accurate think tank on China. They generally have well balanced and sensible articles. But this article has many many tiny inconsistencies.
And being second does not necessarily mean you lost. China is already a tech powerhouse. This competition with the US will span decades; and swing back and forth with US leading on some year and China leading in others.
MERICS is full of bs again. After seeing that China is making too much progress, now they fall back to their favourite "per capita" metrics.
