Posted on 03/18/2007 5:31:06 AM PDT by edpc
Despite the Chinese Communist Party leadership's espousal of China's "peaceful rise," the unprecedented peacetime expansion of China's military capabilities betrays a clear intent to challenge the United States in the Western Pacific and establish itself as the region's predominant military power. With China's massive gross domestic product and military spending at an estimated 4? percent of GDP, the resources Beijing now devotes to its armed forces surely make it a top global power.
U.S. intelligence agencies can plainly see where the money is going. China is assembling a blue-water navy, with a fleet of 29 modern submarines, including 13 super-quiet Russian-made Kilo class subs and 14 Chinese-made Song and Yuan class diesel electric submarines. At least 10 more of these submarines are in China's shipyards, together with five new nuclear ballistic missile and attack boats. China's surface fleet is also undergoing a similar modernization.
China's power in the air and in space is also on the rise. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force has about 300 Russian-designed fourth-generation Sukhoi-27 Flankers and a number of Chinese-built Jian-11 planes and 76 Sukhoi-30 multi-role jets. With Russian and Israeli assistance, the PLA Air Force has acquired an additional 50 or so Jian-10 fighters based on U.S. F-16 technology, and reportedly plans to build 250 more.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
They will also have the Texas trans-corridor to take over the United States.
We need to ice IRAN very soon because we have another enemy in line and Russia behind China. It never ends until America truly owns the planet, unless sharia comes first.
/h
“We need to ice IRAN very soon because we have another enemy in line and Russia behind China. It never ends until America truly owns the planet, unless sharia comes first.”
Perhaps China also thinks “it never ends until China truly owns the planet”. – They are well on their way to achieving that goal.
China has also become an economic superpower. The combination of economic and military superiority means they don’t have to rant, threaten, sword rattle, nuke or invade anybody to exercise their influence.
China already influences our economy – the stock market, the value of the US dollar and they own huge investments here. And while we are all aware of the dangers of our dependence on Mid East oil, look at all the consumer goods from the Pan Pacific.
Forget the earthquakes.. Japan.. the Chinese have the evil eye.. How do you say revenge in Japanese?..
btt
I hope your phrasing is at fault here and these aren''t your realistic intentions. If so, you'll find that the list of nations to be squelched will grow faster than you can stomp potential foes...
Oops = "Plane" should be "planet" - I'm sure Beijing has a few planes as the article tells us.
Well, the US certainly isn't a superpower. The world might need one.
Yep, the build-up should be taken seriously and the US hsould be ready to counter it (Among others). However, a legitimate reason is probably that the CHinese are unhappy knowing that the US can move in and interfere with them at little cost at any time - even a dictatorship wants their national pride and ability to deter what they see as foreign aggression to be respected.
China certainly influences our economy and I loathe the ever increasing importation of Chinese crap, but you need to gather a little perspective here. Steve Forbes was just talking about this yesterday.
Foreign investments in the USA are not a bad thing. Remember back when Japan was buying up properties in the US back in the 80's when the real estate market was booming? Everybody then thought it would be the end of the USA. The reality is they lost their collective arses when the market pulled back and wound up selling most of what they bought at huge losses. Besides, if they buy a building in Manhattan, what are they going to do, dismantle it and move it to Bejing?
Another thing to consider is the relative size of the two economies. Just the growth in our economy last year was larger than the entire Chineese economy as a whole.
I'm not saying it isn't a storm to watch, particularly with their ever-increasing military build up, but when you really look at the scale of things on both sides it puts it into perspective.
Take the bubble-inflated real estate out of the equation...and I think that economic gap drastically shrinks.
One example...Chinas's steel industry is now four times the size of the U.S.
They make most of our circuit boards.
They make all of the raw material of our super-magnets. Critical for aerospace.
China's leaders have cunningly focussed their recent economic growth into military potential sectors.
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