“…This misalignment of perceptions, interests, and resolve could easily result in military conflicts between the US and China, and pressures for preemptive actions (including the use of nuclear weapons) against each other's military assets in the region and in coastal areas to gain the upper hand. Escalatory risks also abound in submarine warfare, mining, and Chinese blockade of the Taiwan Strait, followed by US countermeasures from anti-submarine warfare taking out of Chinese command and control structures and conventional/nuclear missile sites (Kulacki 2020).…”