China can mass superior power in the short run around Taiwan, but that edge cannot last. China counts on toppling the Taiwanese government before we can bring to bear our superior overall power. Assassin's Mace weapons nothwithstanding (notional weapons designed to defeat our strengths), China can only delay our accumulation of superior power and not nullify it.
The question is whether Taiwan lasts long enough for us to bring our power to bear.
We have a weapon to slow the Chinese down, too:
The U.S. Air Force recently held, and publicized, a B-52 training mission that involved dropping naval mines. This is something the air force has been doing since World War II, and with great success.
The mines we used are for shallow waters. I assume we have others for deep waters. Even before we have to decide whether to shoot at Chinese ships and planes heading for Taiwan, I imagine we could drop mines between China and Taiwan.
Shoot, we could drop garbage cans partially filled with metal scraps and the Chinese would have to slow down to clear them.
The Chinese need time to conquer Taiwan. The Taiwanese need time for us to reach them with sufficient power. And we need time to actually decide to intervene on Taiwan's side.
We are buying time. China is buying time.
Only Taiwan is not buying time. They continue to assume that our cavalry will reach the homestead before the hostiles burn their home to the ground.
Which means Taiwan is living on borrowed time.
