The United States lost, "failed miserably," in a battle against Chinese forces, reported Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "They ran rings around us," continued the four-star general. The Chinese fired hundreds of missiles striking Taiwanese and U.S. military installations in the region, then launched a massive amphibious invasion of Taiwan, which it has long considered its breakaway province.

WAIT! WAIT! Don't run to the grocery store to buy milk and toilet paper. Don't rush to the nearest recruiting station to enlist. At least not yet. Hyten, who retired two months ago, was speaking about a Pentagon simulated war game conducted in 2020. And the Chinese invasion of Taiwan happened, but only in a similar Air Force war simulation.

Scholars of geopolitics mostly agree that since the end of the Cold War in 1989, the global system transitioned from a bipolar (U.S. and USSR) to a unipolar structure with the U.S. remaining as the world's only superpower. In his 2018 book "Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World's Sole Superpower," Political scientist Michael Beckley argued that the United States was way ahead of its major rivals and will remain so for decades. In a recent interview, Beckley reassured us that "America still has three times China's wealth and five times its military capabilities." Russia, meanwhile, holds a slight advantage over the United States in nuclear weapons with 6,800; but while the United States has a nominal GDP of 20.5 trillion, Russia's economy measures only 1.6 trillion, less than half of California's.

That said, China and, to some extent, Russia have made considerable strides toward world power status. In a November interview, U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said that the world was moving toward a tripolar configuration with three great powers, and that the United States will be challenged.

CHINA'S AWAKENING

Repeatedly defeated and humiliated by foreign powers from the mid-19th-century Opium Wars through recurrent routs at the hands of Japan and Russia, the 1900 Boxer War against the Eight-Nation Alliance, and more, in the past two decades, China has awakened both economically and militarily; and as French journalist Alain Peyrefitte (perhaps echoing Napoleon) predicted in 1973, once that happened the world would tremble.

In recent years, China has built up its military (land, sea, air, space and cyber), expanding its arsenal and developing cutting-edge military technology the likes of its hypersonic missile, which in a recent test flew undetected around the world. Its autocratic president, Xi Jinping, has made it abundantly clear that he plans to annex Taiwan, demonstrating China's capability to accomplish that by deploying hundreds if not thousands of bombers and fighter planes into Taiwan's defense airspace throughout 2021. Anyone standing in the way of China's economic and territorial expansion, a defiant Xi said, "will have their heads bashed bloody against a Great Wall of steel."

At just two weeks away from the Beijing Winter Olympics, China will not make a move on Taiwan. But Milley has warned the likelihood of such attack will increase sharply as early as 2024, perhaps 2023.

PUTIN'S RATTLING SABER

While a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan may be months or a few years away, a Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent and highly probable.

Putin's invasion and forceful annexation of Crimea in 2014 was part of his ambitious plan to rebuild the Russian empire, which he telegraphed in the opening ceremonies of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. The ceremony included a video presentation — I call it Putin's PowerPoint — in which a blonde preteen girl enumerates Russia's leading figures and accomplishments: Tchaikovsky, Gagarin, the Russian Ballet, the Space Station and so on. In case you missed it, the list of accomplishments included the Russian Empire.

The slide celebrating the Russian Empire is telling. It includes an image of Russia's great empire builder Peter the Great with images of a naval battle and St. Petersburg in the background. Another Russian celebrated with a slide of her own is Catherine the Great, under whom the Russian Empire absorbed Crimea and Ukraine.

At Sochi, the Russian Federation won more gold medals (13) and more overall medals (33) than any other country. Four days after the closing ceremony, Russian special forces seized several government buildings in Crimea and raised the Russian flag. Ukraine had won one bronze and one gold medal, then lost a good chunk of its territory to the Russians.

To be continued.

Luis Martinez-Fernandez is author of "Revolutionary Cuba: A History" and "Key to the New World: A History of Early Colonial Cuba." Readers can reach him at LMF_Column@yahoo.com. To find out more about Luis Martinez-Fernandez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www. creators.com.

Photo credit: VisionPics at Pixabay