China is surprisingly confined in its waters. Strange as it seems with all that coast line, China (and thus a huge chunk of world trade) has to transit confined sea pathways before it can reach oceans.
Conversely, should China ever gain control over Taiwan, that fact and the implied retreat of Western navies (US primarily) from those waters would make China's Navy the guarantor of the global (trade) order in its most important economic region. Today, it is the US Navy that fills that role.
Geography remains hugely important in shaping history. Per some views, the very rise of Europe was primarily due to navigational advances. Technologies that allowed circumventing strategic geographical realities that had stood for thousands of years: the land corridors of Asia and the Mediterranian sea & ports.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_island_chain
China is surprisingly confined in its waters. Strange as it seems with all that coast line, China (and thus a huge chunk of world trade) has to transit confined sea pathways before it can reach oceans.
Conversely, should China ever gain control over Taiwan, that fact and the implied retreat of Western navies (US primarily) from those waters would make China's Navy the guarantor of the global (trade) order in its most important economic region. Today, it is the US Navy that fills that role.
Geography remains hugely important in shaping history. Per some views, the very rise of Europe was primarily due to navigational advances. Technologies that allowed circumventing strategic geographical realities that had stood for thousands of years: the land corridors of Asia and the Mediterranian sea & ports.