WWIII Would be a Thing to See

So say for the sake of argument that  China and India are arguing over control of the south china sea and the sea of Japan.

China is sending a lot of their ships (including a fleet of submarines), and India is doing the same.

Now what if, China brings along their recent allies (and erstwhile enemies) the Russians (and other Baltic states that formerly comprised the soviet union)  and India brings in it's current allies (the Americans) who happen to be former cold war enemies who are currently falling out again after 30 years or so of peace (just long enough to raise a generation that has no memory of the cold war).

Everyone is tense.

Everyone has nukes and bioweapons and all manner of ugliness.

And nobody really wants to fire first, though everyone is kinda curious to see what the result would be.

So basically,  China, India, Russia, and the U.S. are in a Mexican standoff with each other over the sea of Japan...


You can't write a joke setup like this...
and we're all waiting with baited breath to see what the punch line will be.