Is China already at war?

[Strike For The South]

moder! moder! moder!

Today in school we learned that countries can antagonize and leverage eachother for gain in ways other than open conflict!

In any event, China will have to deal with internal strife long before they can stand toe to toe with the US

[Kadagar_AV]

moder! moder! moder!

Today in school we learned that countries can antagonize and leverage eachother for gain in ways other than open conflict!

In any event, China will have to deal with internal strife long before they can stand toe to toe with the US

That was insightful.


Anyone else wanna have a go?

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Actually, Strike is spot on with internal strife issue. China is shifting from a command to a market economy, from a police state to something less so, from an agro industrial to a fully mixed economy....and they are dealing with turmoil over the occupation of Nepal and traditional Chinese regionalism into the bargain. Strife they have in plenty and will have to get past significant chunks of it to assume superpower status.

There economy, though slowing from its headiest growth, seems likely to reach the requisite level of power and influence. Economics, though a key element, are not the sole requirement.

[Kadagar_AV]

Actually, Strike is spot on with internal strife issue. China is shifting from a command to a market economy, from a police state to something less so, from an agro industrial to a fully mixed economy....and they are dealing with turmoil over the occupation of Nepal and traditional Chinese regionalism into the bargain. Strife they have in plenty and will have to get past significant chunks of it to assume superpower status.

There economy, though slowing from its headiest growth, seems likely to reach the requisite level of power and influence. Economics, though a key element, are not the sole requirement.

Why draw that conclusion? Look at the US, where a worker happily accept to earn like what? 5000% less a month than their boss. Might be worse, I don't know?


If the US can keep their workers down with pure BS, I am sure China can as well.

Long live The Chinese Dream!!

[Strike For The South]

Why draw that conclusion? Look at the US, where a worker happily accept to earn like what? 5000% less a month than their boss. Might be worse, I don't know?


If the US can keep their workers down with pure BS, I am sure China can as well.

Long live The Chinese Dream!!

The plight of workers in the two countries is in no way comparable.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Why draw that conclusion? Look at the US, where a worker happily accept to earn like what? 5000% less a month than their boss. Might be worse, I don't know?


If the US can keep their workers down with pure BS, I am sure China can as well.

Long live The Chinese Dream!!

You call it BS, I call it a staggering standard of living wherein our urban poor possess resources that outstrip the median standard of living in many developing nations. Where else in the world do the poverty-stricken die so frequently from "metabolic disease?" It's the ultimate "opiate of the masses."

[HoreTore]

Actually, Strike is spot on with internal strife issue. China is shifting from a command to a market economy, from a police state to something less so, from an agro industrial to a fully mixed economy....and they are dealing with turmoil over the occupation of Nepal and traditional Chinese regionalism into the bargain. Strife they have in plenty and will have to get past significant chunks of it to assume superpower status.

There economy, though slowing from its headiest growth, seems likely to reach the requisite level of power and influence. Economics, though a key element, are not the sole requirement.

Indeed. I hear a lot of alarmists ranting about how "China has increased their defense budget by 3000%(or some other high number) in the last decade, WWIII is imminent!!"

What these folks are forgetting is that China is restructuring how their military(and other state functions) are funded. The Chinese military used to be self-financed, by the profit made by factories owned by the army. They're changing this now, however, and the army is now increasingly being funded directly by from the national budget, with the factories handed over to the state in exchange. Thus, you will have a gargantuan increase in military spending on the national budget, but the actual amount of money pooled into the army doesn't change.

Misconceptions like these are extremely common when dealing with China. It really is a different country than the rest, and understanding it takes quite some effort.

On the subject of increased spending, what is increasing is the internal security force. That's where China puts it money, meaning that's where the leadership believes the focus should be. Internal issues, not external. What's happening in Washington just isn't as important as what's happening in Chongqing.

There's a large demonstration/riot somewhere in China every single day, that's what concerns the Chinese leadership.

[Montmorency]

Horetore, the estimates of China's defense spending - not "budget" - from the 90's take that into account. Money spent is money spent, no matter how it is ordered on paper.

In fact, while China's military spendings as proportion of GDP fell precipitously in the 1980s and has been on a gradual downward trend ever since, China is spending 3-5x as much in real terms now (on the national military) than it was 15 years ago. So while much of it could be attributed to China raising spending to be in line with economic capacity, and a closer relationship between the officially-reported military budget and actual spending, it is quite clear that China is interested in establishing a credible military-response capacity for their near-abroad - and yes, this obviously means that along the line this will cause friction between the USA's and China's desire to exert influence or control over, for instance, key sea lanes of the Pacific. But nothing really out of line is going on here. Modernization is expensive, as the Chinese are restructuring their military into a more professional and better-equipped institution.

It is important, though, to refrain from handwaving real trends in order to bolster the point against their sensationalization; it stands on its own.

[Viking]

....and they are dealing with turmoil over the occupation of Nepal

I know the mountains in the area may all look the same, but...

[Greyblades]

I was confused about that, if the chinese had tried to occupy nepal we would have at least noticed the charities set up to help the poor chinese.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Apologies, I meant Tibet and wrote Nepal. Kukrikhan will never forgive me.

Ayo Gurkhali!

[Shaka_Khan]

Apologies, I meant Tibet and wrote Nepal. Kukrikhan will never forgive me.

Ayo Gurkhali!

I understand. I used to confuse Slovenia with Slovakia. That was until about a decade ago when someone on the internet pointed it out. Thank goodness for the internet.