World War 3 threat: Russia, China increase military power

Despite the pandemic, the increasing tensions between the West and Russia, and China could potentially lead to a conflict of World War 3 proportions. Fears of an all-out conflict have been stoked recently as both Russia and China make huge investments in their military.

Over the years, China has ramped up its military presence and investments in its military forces due to increasing tensions over the South and East China Seas and Taiwan. In the case of Russia, most of its military budget has been allocated to purchasing and upgrading its military arsenal.

However, despite Beijing having the largest Navy in the world, an expert says that it will still depend on how the People’s Liberation Army performs, noting that China has not fought in a war in over 40 years.

According to Stanford University China Security Policy expert Oriana Skylar Mastro, the question lies in how the PLA would fare in combat.

“No officer in the US military considers that orders might not be carried out...If you tell your troops to charge a hill, they charge a hill,” said Mastro. “In China, that’s a huge uncertainty, whether the troops would actually run toward the bullets, instead of away.”

When it comes to Russia, Moscow-based military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said that Moscow’s approach to wars is through military tanks and that Russia is ready to fight Ukraine with its tanks.

“Russians believe that tanks win wars, and now they’re ready for a big tank battle against Ukraine or in other places and they have been training and demonstrating their capability to swiftly mobilize hundreds of thousands of men and large amounts of equipment,” Felgenhauer told The Telegraph.

It is not just Russia and China that the West is at odds with, but also North Korea due to its growing nuclear arsenal. This comes as US intelligence has reported that North Korea has a shipyard poised to launch a nuclear ballistic submarine. Satellite images have shown activity surrounding a submarine that could launch sub-service ballistic missiles that could be fitted with nuclear warheads.

Last week, the news outlet 38 North said the satellite images of the Sinpo shipyard found a floating dry-dock for constructing vessels were moved to a submarine-launch quay. The floating dry-dock in question was seen along a construction hall, the dry-dock possibly being part of North Korea’s plan to build a submarine for launching ballistic missiles from under the sea.