China and war

[StriderX]

The rest of the world benefited from taking advantage of China's massive work force to make cheap goods to fund our life style from throw away fashion to cheap electronics....I mean how else do you get a 50" TV for under £300?

In return China got money in return, I mean that's how it works. You get paid for your work. We can not use China and build everything ourselves but in return we need to prepare to pay much higher prices for pretty much everything. Or pay other countries with a similar work force to do it, like India, but they too will get rich we are still going to have the same problem in a couple of decades.

As for actual war and invasion, that's not going to happen. The US will crush pretty much everyone if there is a real war. The US have a much larger military, more allies and more oil.

Well no, as if it ever came to a full-scale war, there'd be no winner. We're already in a resource war and China know's it, with regards to water, just look at where the SE Asia water supply emanates from.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Well no, as if it ever came to a full-scale war, there'd be no winner.

Let's find out!

/wait...

 

[Rroff]

I know the OP was coming from a perspective of China pursuing an aggressive policy either directly or in a covert manner but it doesn't necessarily have to be China wanting war for it to come to war.

 

[Mrwong]

I can't see a hot war with China without something extraordinary happening - but I would be unsurprised to see things moving towards a cold war footing with some potential tensions/risk of escalation/isolated flashpoints.

War these days have different battlefields,
The most common one would be a the Cold War scenario.

China - pak relations are pretty strong maybe China would back Pakistan against India as a proxy war.

I personally think Trumps appointment cut short China’s global intention and have been forced to show their cards.

 

[Nasher]

Problem is like a lot of commie dictatorships, China is very leader focused. Once Pooh retires it could all fall apart.

 

[Mrwong]

Problem is like a lot of commie dictatorships, China is very leader focused. Once Pooh retires it would all fall apart.

Maybe not, he will not retire, the pivot point for me was when No term limits were put in place. He now can be in for his entire life.

His farther was one of the founders of the economic idea which had allowed China to change direction to finance and saved its ideology, and this is were they are today.

The current leader family have a history of war be it using books or be it using weapons which is why he is very dangerous to the world.

 

[Dem2k]

I dont think we will ever have a war directly with China or any ICBM power which is a great sigh of relief because who wants that today? The US would not be able to dominant China I just don't think they are capable of doing that today. I think the only way the US would be able to dominate china is if they had some massive technological advantage but I doubt that they have it.

I do think they will pick sides in other conflicts across the globe and the hostilies will be indirect, things like cyberwarfare, espionage, coercion and propaganda, funding or supplying sides causing instabillty etc, but i think this has always gone on.

 

[Edrof]

China won't declare war any time soon, against the West anyway, and if they do it will be devastating for them regardless of fear-mongering about army sizes. Their geographical position is not as secure as ours.

 

[Efour]

China owns/Influences Most of Africa and South America.

I dont think they will be the aggressors in a war but maybe they will start projecting their forces around the world abit more, like the US always do.

 

[wedrum]

Sooner the better. Wipe out man kind and let the earth be.

 

[dpbadger]

Well India and China were going at it with sticks and rocks the other day.

 

[StriderX]

China won't declare war any time soon, against the West anyway, and if they do it will be devastating for them regardless of fear-mongering about army sizes. Their geographical position is not as secure as ours.

Just because their position isn't as secure as ours doesn't mean their position isn't quite secure, from taking Tibet to entrenching claims in the SCS to leveraging soft power, they've done everything in the pursuit of defending themselves. There's no situation in which the West wins a hot war without it being pyrrhic, the only reasonable option is to win the mindshare of the world.

 

[Rroff]

Just because their position isn't as secure as ours doesn't mean their position isn't quite secure, from taking Tibet to entrenching claims in the SCS to leveraging soft power, they've done everything in the pursuit of defending themselves. There's no situation in which the West wins a hot war without it being pyrrhic, the only reasonable option is to win the mindshare of the world.

Personally I'm not so sure - China traditionally has not done well when it comes to conventional war against the west and many of the same issues as to why that is still persist today and has relatively limited numbers of nuclear launchers with more limited stealth/surprise potential making them far easier to interdict than the likes of Russia (who have both some stealth capability and the ability to simply overwhelm ABMs). The reasons the west might not do so well come more down to increasingly poor foresight, hubris and the likes and that the reaction to such a situation is likely to be far more reactionary than it should be causing a lot of early losses that would be avoidable.

 

[Eurofighter]

This is why there should be more military spending in Europe.

 

[Rroff]

This is why there should be more military spending in Europe.

I dunno about more military spending, but it is why we should be making sure our capabilities are appropriate and ready including nuclear deterrents and why any steps to weaken our get rid of our deterrents are incredibly short sighted at best.

 

[alchal]

Would love to know the detection ability of China with regards to ICBMs ,as although a nuclear power it will be for naught if a first strike catches them,also how good are their ballistic subs as they need to be able to avoid the hunters.

I know America has stations everywhere to pick up launches straight away.

Not that it would come to it.

 

[Rroff]

Would love to know the detection ability of China with regards to ICBMs ,as although a nuclear power it will be for naught if a first strike catches them,also how good are their ballistic subs as they need to be able to avoid the hunters.

I know America has stations everywhere to pick up launches straight away.

Not that it would come to it.

China wouldn't stand a chance against a first strike by the likes of the US or Russia - although they've demonstrated the full set of capabilities for interception their actual active systems are more limited and would be quickly overwhelmed. They also likely would have limited success in countering us due to the way our deterrent is utilised - at least on paper. They'd have better luck against the likes of India.

EDIT: They'd likely fully be able to retaliate against us in that kind of scenario as we don't have the capability to decisively take out their ability to respond - but they'd have a hard time in stopping any use of nuclear weapons against them by us.

 

[thenewoc]

I think it's highly likely but whether it's with the West or them loosing a grip of control over their own population as a result of drying up trade and the onset of an uprising particular among the younger generations that may not be prepared to toe the CCP propaganda machine line when food is short / standards of living fall. What happens next with Hong Kong will be notable as this is where tensions could cause a lot of things to start to unravel. China has recently made a veiled threat to HSBC and Standard Chartered banks with regards to consequences for not supporting China's new laws governing Hong Kong. There's already friction with the US, Australia, India & UK with more likely to follow if China imposes the new laws on HK then I expect we'll be forced to get involved with repatriating HK residences to here and dropping Huawei 5G plans. I think the US has already said it wouldn't stand by and allow China to impose undemocratic rule over HK so I see this as being where it will kick off soon. If the HK people are prepared rise up I don't doubt the west will be willing to sell them the arms.

 

[Rroff]

I think it's highly likely but whether it's with the West or them loosing a grip of control over their own population as a result of drying up trade and the onset of an uprising particular among the younger generations that may not be prepared to toe the CCP propaganda machine line when food is short / standards of living fall. What happens next with Hong Kong will be notable as this is where tensions could cause a lot of things to start to unravel. China has recently made a veiled threat to HSBC and Standard Chartered banks with regards to consequences for not supporting China's new laws governing Hong Kong. There's already friction with the US, Australia, India & UK with more likely to follow if China imposes the new laws on HK then I expect we'll be forced to get involved with repatriating HK residences to here and dropping Huawei 5G plans. I think the US has already said it wouldn't stand by and allow China to impose undemocratic rule over HK so I see this as being where it will kick off soon. If the HK people are prepared rise up I don't doubt the west will be willing to sell them the arms.

My concern when it comes to HK is that the rest of the world won't see it as something worth causing friction for, but standing back and allowing China to do its thing will be seen as weakness and embolden China being more costly in the long run than if we took a firmer stance now. Amongst other things if we are weak on HK I think Taiwan's position is going to become more complicated in the long run.

I can't see a situation where HK is ever buying arms from the rest of the world to fight China though :s we are more likely to repatriate anyone who wants it and leave HK to its own fate long before that happens.

 

[thenewoc]

My concern when it comes to HK is that the rest of the world won't see it as something worth causing friction for, but standing back and allowing China to do its thing will be seen as weakness and embolden China being more costly in the long run than if we took a firmer stance now. Amongst other things if we are weak on HK I think Taiwan's position is going to become more complicated in the long run.

I can't see a situation where HK is ever buying arms from the rest of the world to fight China though :s we are more likely to repatriate anyone who wants it and leave HK to its own fate long before that happens.

I was thinking more of a gorilla army / resistance sense rather than an official HK army.