Beijing would still have many ways to coerce Taiwan and the United States even if they sent China’s amphibious fleet to the bottom of the strait. China could try to strangle Taiwan economically with a blockade or cripple U.S. and Taiwanese electrical grids and telecommunications networks with cyberattacks.58 China could also try to bomb Taiwan into submission and perhaps even use, or threaten to use, nuclear weapons—a tactic that Beijing’s rapid nuclear buildup is making somewhat more feasible and, potentially, more attractive.
