Haha! That horse does look suspicious.

I see China has launched their inevitable response - military exercises surrounding the island for two days.

One factor that could lend weight to considerations of a near-future invasion is that some countries are (super belatedly) waking up to the fact that they're hopelessly dependent on China & exposed in terms of any conflict re supply of essential goods. Australia is a prime example. Finally there are some noises from the government, like they've just worked that reality out, & money is being thrown at certain industries (in this case the battery industry) to address it. It would still take 5-10 years probably, & it doesn't solve the problem of the shelves at major stores emptying overnight, but CCP may calculate that it's better to strike while they still have that capacity to cripple countries economically.

There's a lot of scenarios war-gamed involving military hardware, but not enough done focusing on what it will be like economically. If people can't buy cellphones, computers, & medicines (or any factory products, really), that's a weapon in itself. Even if you win the war, it doesn't solve it.

The US is far ahead of Australia (though still vulnerable), but there are many other countries that are in Australia's predicament. It's culpable stupidity & greed that it's been allowed to get to this point, but it has.