The Chinese have been eyeing Siberia for decades and the Russians know it. Lots of resources there that could truly make China an independent country. Much like the Japanese lashed out before and during WWII because of their lack of raw materials, the Chinese are feeling the same.
Much like the Japanese lashed out before and during WWII because of their lack of raw materials, the Chinese are feeling the same.
Its proven coal reserves are about 1/2 those of the US, the Saudi Arabia of coal. And the reality is that there’s not exactly been any great incentive for private prospectors to go looking for new deposits, given that all natural resources are property of the Party, and the fact that the country has an unbroken record of gypping foreign firms with exploration contracts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_by_country
China’s problem historically has been bad leaders, not a lack of human or natural resources. Economically productive countries never need to invade anyone to obtain resources. That’s what trade is for. Japan’s leaders embarked on the quest for empire for the same reason as their counterparts everywhere else in time and space - everyone wants to be Alexander or Julius Caesar, with their names at the tip of every school child’s tongue, not just from history lessons, but from generation after generation of children named after these personages.
The sad reality is that the quest for personal glory requires war, in service of territorial gains, rather than peace. That is the reason Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are likely to go to war. Both countries have long histories of territorial expansion, and leaders instrumental in that expansion are lionized in their official histories. Xi will act soon because he can, due to China’s burgeoning economy, and Putin must move forthwith because he’s running out of time, due to advancing age, to match Stalin’s record (not of ruthless repression, but of land grabs, e.g. by gaining Sakhalin and the Kuriles, Karelia, Poland’s eastern territories, Bessarabia, East Prussia, etc etc).
Leaders look at war in the same way that climbers look at their next trek up a mountain. For mountaineers, those icy slopes are a challenge to be overcome, partly for an adrenaline rush and partly so they can check off another item on their bucket list. Leaders add to that the possibility of immortality in the history books.