Overview
- China is using the ongoing U.S.-Israeli air and missile campaign against Iran to study how Washington fights and sustains a hard war.
- Experts quoted by the South China Morning Post say U.S. tech and intelligence strengths are clear but face limits from a thinner industrial base, high costs, and growing pushback at home and abroad.
- Iran has kept up missile and drone strikes, and the downing of a U.S. F-15E with its crew recovered shows the fight is not one-sided.
- The war has choked shipping near the Strait of Hormuz, lifting energy risks and raising the chance that clashes around the Gulf spread to more states.
- In Taiwan, analysts warn the conflict could drain U.S. defenses and attention, citing reports of interceptor shortfalls, a THAAD battery moved from South Korea to the Middle East, and scant advance notice to allies.