"In 1774, the Ottoman Empire was defeated by Catherine the Great." ......The Ottomans and other Muslims controlled Crimea. They want it back. China being in population decline. Do they have enough Chinese willing to settle in very cold Siberia? If PLA invades Siberia, Rooski will use nukes on them, right at the Russia-China border.
I really like how building the 2nd Power of Siberia gas pipeline to China, is getting stalled out, endlessly.
Do they have enough Chinese willing to settle in very cold Siberia?
—
Willingness is not relavant. The Chinese want the vast untilled farm lands just across the border.
“Do they have enough Chinese willing to settle in very cold Siberia?”
They have a youth unemployment problem, and a lot of Government power to coerce or incentivize such re-settlement. They have a long history of such deliberate demographic packing of Han Chinese to exert political and economic control into conquered areas, including in recent decades, into The Muslim areas of XinXiang (formerly East Turkmenistan), and Buddhist Tibet. It is a characteristic Chinese imperial strategy, accompanied by harshly enforced cultural assimilation.
China may be delaying the funding of the Power of Siberia 2 Pipeline, simply because they can easily see that their leverage to drive a rapacious deal is likely to increase sharply, as Russia becomes more economically desperate through 2025 - just waiting for the fire sale.
Even if they eventually agree to the funding, the planned operational date of 2030 has already slipped further out.