{"id":51332,"date":"2025-10-21T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/10\/21\/in-a-war-the-us-army-could-destroy-chinas-ports-should-it\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T14:06:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:06:04","slug":"in-a-war-the-us-army-could-destroy-chinas-ports-should-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/opinion\/commentary\/2025\/10\/21\/in-a-war-the-us-army-could-destroy-chinas-ports-should-it\/","title":{"rendered":"In a war, the US Army could destroy China\u2019s ports. Should it?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If America goes to war with China, rocketry may be the U.S. Army\u2019s most important contribution. A conflict across the vast Pacific would be waged primarily by air and sea forces, backed by small contingents of ground troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But while the Army may not storm Shanghai in a ground assault, it certainly has the ability to strike Chinese territory. The Army has an arsenal of long-range munitions in service or under development, including the shorter-range Precision Strike Missile, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/global\/asia-pacific\/2025\/09\/19\/china-bristles-at-us-armys-typhon-missile-launcher-in-japan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/global\/asia-pacific\/2025\/09\/19\/china-bristles-at-us-armys-typhon-missile-launcher-in-japan\/\">Typhon<\/a> Strategic Mid-Range Fires system and the <a href=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2025\/08\/05\/army-deploys-hypersonic-missiles-to-indo-pacific-for-australian-drills\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/news.usni.org\/2025\/08\/05\/army-deploys-hypersonic-missiles-to-indo-pacific-for-australian-drills\">Dark Eagle<\/a> Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon. These missiles can hit targets 1,000 to almost 3,000 kilometers away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A likely target would be Chinese ports that would be key to supporting the Chinese fleet, staging an amphibious invasion of Taiwan and sustaining Chinese exports and imports. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But damaging Chinese ports or seizing Chinese economic facilities is a bad idea, warns an Army National Guard officer. In fact, \u201cthe Army should preserve Chinese maritime shipping infrastructure during conflict so that it is usable postwar,\u201d wrote Capt. Micah Neidorfler in a recent essay for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armyupress.army.mil\/Journals\/Military-Review\/English-Edition-Archives\/September-October-2025\/Fighting-for-the-Day-After\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.armyupress.army.mil\/Journals\/Military-Review\/English-Edition-Archives\/September-October-2025\/Fighting-for-the-Day-After\/\">Military Review<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This sounds counterintuitive; compelling the enemy to capitulate by destroying his strategic infrastructure has been a plank of U.S. policy since the B-17 bombers of the 1930s. But despite U.S. efforts to decouple its economy from China\u2019s, America still depends on China for everything from iPhones and rare earths to providing an export market for American farmers. Much of the global economy \u2014 especially manufacturing \u2014 relies on Chinese industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet, \u201cU.S. joint doctrine specifically identifies ports as targets, and predictions for a U.S.-China war perceive Chinese ports as likely targets for U.S. strikes,\u201d Neidorfler noted. \u201cTherefore, in any U.S.-China conflict, Chinese maritime infrastructure will be exposed to the devastation of twenty-first-century warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If devastating China\u2019s ports cripples the global or U.S. economy, any victory could prove pyrrhic. Since an unconditional Chinese surrender is unlikely, there will inevitably be a negotiated peace and a need to restore postwar trade, Neidorfler argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSuggesting that the Army should preserve enemy strategic infrastructure might make many balk, but the reasoning is sound,\u201d wrote Neidorfler. \u201cU.S. domestic prosperity significantly depends upon international trade and the global economy, which in turn are deeply intertwined with China.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Neidorfler sees a way out of this dilemma. Ports are complex entities with numerous \u2014 and vulnerable \u2014 components for loading and unloading cargo, storing it and transporting goods to and from the site. Thus, ports are vulnerable to disruption at many points, including cranes, piers, rail yards and oil storage tanks. It is possible to hit specific targets that render a port temporarily inoperable, but without inflicting long-term damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cApplying this tactic to Chinese ports would fulfill a strategic aim of preventing or degrading their utility during wartime while remaining relatively easy to repair post-conflict, allowing China to return to maritime trade quickly,\u201d argued Neidorfler. In addition, because \u201cdestroying subcomponents does not threaten ports\u2019 long-term functionality, this dramatically reduces the escalatory nature of targeting them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All of this ties into the larger question of the Army\u2019s role as a major player in a Pacific war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Defense tank analyses of a possible U.S.-China war have ignored Army contributions or focused on the service\u2019s niche capabilities, Neidorfler noted. But in reality, \u201cover the last decade, the Army has focused on five main themes,\u201d he wrote, including command and control for the joint force, sustaining the joint force and also protecting it via air defense, ground-based long-range fires and traditional maneuver forces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whether the U.S would actually attack Chinese ports is open to debate. Given that China has the world\u2019s third-largest nuclear arsenal and ICBMs that can reach the continental United States, the decision to fire missiles at Chinese cities may be more of a political than a military decision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Neidorfler offers an alternative: using the Army to seize Chinese-owned ports in other nations, to use as bargaining chips or to prevent their use as military and intelligence bases. China\u2019s investment in foreign ports is massive: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/tracker\/china-overseas-ports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/tracker\/china-overseas-ports\">129 projects<\/a> in which Chinese companies own equity or are involved in port operations, according to a 2024 estimate. He argues the majority of the Army\u2019s force structure would be available for such a strategy, as a U.S.-China conflict would not require a vast number of maneuver units in the Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Army would enjoy a variety of means to capture Chinese-owned overseas infrastructure that would be lightly defended at best, he argued. These include special operations forces, and for a more diplomatic approach, Army foreign area officers and National Guard bilateral affairs officers who could work with the host nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But even here, there are political complications, Neidorfler cautioned. Seizing Chinese property \u201craises sovereignty issues for the nations housing Chinese ports, and the United States could not pursue this unilaterally,\u201d wrote Neidorfler. Since many countries \u2014 especially in the Global South \u2014 are unlikely to welcome American military intervention, \u201cthird-party states\u2019 own militaries seizing assets would be more realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. experts on China have misgivings on these ideas. Authorization to attack Chinese ports is not a given, Lonnie Henley, a researcher at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told Defense News. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWho knows what some future president in some unspecified global circumstances would decide,\u201d Henley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As for Army long-range missiles, \u201cyou need a place to stand to launch those weapons, and you have to get the forces there, and sustain them, and defend them from counterattack,\u201d said Henley, a former Army lieutenant colonel with long experience as an intelligence expert on East Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition, the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy already have plenty of missiles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMore weapons on target is always good, but how many more can the Army provide, compared to another dozen B-52 sorties?\u201d Henley asked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. and its allies could probably cut off most Chinese maritime trade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo what\u2019s the added benefit of seizing ports in third countries?\u201d Henley said. \u201cNone that I can see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even Neidorfler admits that his ideas are \u201cnot an intuitive strategy,\u201d as culturally, the Army is \u201cfocused on achieving decisive victory in the shortest time possible.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet short of global nuclear war, a Sino-American war would inevitably end in some kind of peace agreement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf the U.S. Army is truly preparing for a conventional war, it must recognize that any settlement must be mutually acceptable for it to last,\u201d Neidorfler concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If America were to go to war with China, damaging Chinese ports or seizing economic facilities would be a strategic blunder, one officer argues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":88069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":78,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"10":{"categories":["land","asia-pacific","global","ausa","digital-show-dailies","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"land"}}},"categories":[78,100,12,25,14,70],"tags":[8508],"coauthors":[3386],"class_list":["post-51332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-opinion","category-your-army","tag-china"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"WYYNMKJ5YVA6FJXPKYMLSJRES4","arc_canonical_url":"\/opinion\/commentary\/2025\/10\/21\/in-a-war-the-us-army-could-destroy-chinas-ports-should-it\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>In a war, the US Army could destroy China\u2019s ports. Should it? - Army Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If America were to go to war with China, damaging Chinese ports or seizing economic facilities would be a strategic blunder, one officer argues.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In a war, the US Army could destroy China\u2019s ports. 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