And ironically, an incredibly superficial one at that.
Eep, perhaps I should have justified my response a little more.
WMDs exist as a deterrent. As soon as that deterrent has failed, we enter into the realms of MAD. If China invaded, it would be on terms of a conventional war, otherwise it wouldn't be an invasion but genocide. It's superficial because you assume that the statement is enough, when the subject clearly goes far deeper. We're talking geo-politics, weapons acquisition, foreign policy, different modes of warefare, etc.
[Emphasis mine]
This is assuming the deterrent fails. If it does so you are entirely right and the rest of the speculation within the thread is valid. I think though that the deterrent is enough to hold - especially under such a circumstance as a foreign state mounting a full on invasion against our sovereignty.
There are essentially four things we have to consider in the argument;
Is the threat credible enough to warrant nuclear retaliation? Yes. It can be assumed that if an attack is imminent and we do not use them then the outcome would not favour us.
Does retaining our sovereignty outweigh the lives of millions of Chinese citizens? Again yes. In an anarchic international system all states primary goals is survival. Such an extreme threat to the state validates the extemity of its counter attack.
How badly would Britains international image suffer in response to the above? There would have course be negative consequences afterwards politically and economically, however I believe that under the assumptions of the scenario they would not deter the decision away from the use of nuclear weapons.
And if China act as a rational agent in this scenario would she not be able to factor these considerations into her decision to launch a 'conventional' war? It is rational to assume that after finding these conclusions China would not proceed with this kind of military invasion.
I hope this helps further explain the much shorter statement I put before. But you are right to mention different modes of warefare. It is much more likely that if any conflict with China were to occur it would be via the realms of low politics (through mediums like the internet, aggressive trade tarrifs, protectionism, commercial interests and frequent vetoing within the UN.)
