Posted on 05/20/2005 8:09:59 AM PDT by ComtedeMaistre
Every day, the economic power and political influence of Red China continues to increase. I am, however, interested in knowing how powerful China is militarily. Is China strong enough to defeat the US in a conventional war? The latest I heard is that they have a total of 10 million trained to serve in their military, including reserves. I would especially like to hear from Freeper veterans as well as those serving in the military, on the potential threat that China poses to the United States.
The "sheer numbers" of their military are irrelevant, unless you were planning on the US invading China, which isn't going to happen.
Which is why China has been furiously REDUCING the troop strength of its army in recent years, to try to devote money saved to more advanced weaponry.
However, this creates the problem of having a lot of POed men with military training that are fresh out of a job.
you can say that again ;-)
For some reason, I get a mental picture of thousands of rats running over steep cliffs into the ocean to drown.
I know I've seen that somewhere before....
Quote: With a large army and friends in the western hemisphere, Castro, Chavez and the Democrats the communist are poised to attack without much warning. The communist have the largest army, the largest shipping companies and they are in key places such as the Panama Canal and Cuba. This would be key to invading the American south.
2 words: Red Dawn
ROFLMAO..this is becoming one of the funniest threads I've ever read.
Anyone talking about a Chinese invasion of the US is so profoundly stupid I'm frankly shocked they can operate a computer successfully.
China outnumbers the US population 3:1. Do you remember the last war the US was in where our battlefield casualty conversion was anywhere near as low as 3:1? Me neither.
The Chinese outnumber us, but they don't outnumber us enough to compensate for a mediocre military.
Exactly, the US submarine force will be there in no time, just a small part of the Pacific sub fleet has the capability to defend a small island while the rest of the fleet shows up.
To what purpose would be my question. Taiwan has nothing China needs since they were given much of the technology they might have obtained by a takeover.
Seems any assertion by China re Taiwan is testing the political will of the US; nothing more. I could be missing something, and likely am ;^)
FGS
They can and they will, due largely to the fact that we are in the hands of thieves, traitors and idiots.
you are one big vaporizer ;)
it's not about vaporzing - it's about selling vakuum cleaners, T-Shirts and in the future - cars - later planes then everything.
China will take taiwan if it pays off (only summs up - if the carrier group can be moved a bit to slip through by lets say dollars). If not - they maybe buy taiwan if it is for sale.
Agreed.
Yes, they would have to cross the ocean. And it would be a touch difficult.
I love that phrase, "nobody wants the home court advantage in war."
No for the following reasons:
1. China could not occupy the United States just as we could not occupy China.This is not even a matter of number of soldiers, but more a matter of logistics. The Chinese could not suppport a few million troops 10-15,000 miles from home. The United States, even with it's logistical accumen and expertise, is having difficulties supplying 150,000 combat troops in Iraq.
2.China's "One Child Policy" will ensure that if the Chinese government ever gets into a serious military scrape that millions of parents dependant upon their only son will take to the streets in an attempt to stop the madness. It will make Tiannamen Square look like a block party.
3. China does not have forward bases from which to launch an attack upon the United States proper. The U.S. can utilize bases in the Philipines, Japan, Australia, Taiwan and South Korea. There are no comparable Chinese bases or alliances availabel to them. Cuba? Don't even think about it. Panama Canal? Not as vital to world trade and communications as it used to be.
4. The US Navy. China cannot cross the Pacific in the face of American naval power.
5. Chinese power production is too exposed to be adequately protected. It is dependant upon huge dam projects and massive coal-fired plants that stick out like sore thimbs and which cannot be adequately protected. One of the lessons learned in WWII was that if the German power grid had been effectively attacked, Germany would have been out of the war two years sooner. It was one of the failings of stragtegic bombing,. China's infrastructure is just as vulnerable and with cruise missiles and other stand-off weapons, they're easy tragets. No electricity, no Chinese war effort.
6. At the end of the day, China is still a non-Western power. No non-Western power has defeated a western power in a stand up fight for nearly 3,000 years.
Just my 2 cents...
Russo-Japanese War on line 1 (unless you don't consider the Russians "western"
Taiwan is a extremely mountainous country...many places to hide...If the Chicoms ever invaded thay would have a major guerilla war on their hands
Yeah, I tend to agree with you. As long as they have a small group who run everything and have absolute power, they may not care what people do economically.
Do they have a mediocre military? I don't know how good their military is one way or another actually, aside from the fact that they certainly got a lot of stuff from us during the Clinton years. Maybe they ain't so mediocre anymore.
Japan actually did pretty well against us in WW2 initially. We let our guard down. Same as we're doing with China - surprise is always a tremendous advantage.
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