Posted on 02/21/2014 10:47:07 PM PST by Zhang Fei
(snip)
China does not have a grand imperial plan to invade its neighbours, in the way the Soviets did. But in any country with a rapidly growing military – one that is flexing its muscles and is involved in a score of unresolved territorial disputes – there is always the risk that its leaders might be tempted by some sort of military solution, the lure of a quick win that would reorder the regional balance. If China and its neighbours all believe that the US has a credible plan for a conflict, this both deters any eventual Chinese adventurism and reduces the risk that anxious Asians will start their own arms races with Beijing. Or, as TX Hammes, the American military historian, puts it: “We need to make sure no one in the Chinese military is whispering in their leaders’ ears: ‘If you listen to me, we can be in Paris in just two weeks.’”
(snip)
In early 2012, the Pentagon released a document called “Joint Operational Access Concept” (known in the building as Joac). In the event of a conflict, the paper says, the US should “attack the enemy’s cyber and space” capabilities. At the same time, it should attack the enemy’s anti-access forces “in depth”. The clear implication of this advice is that, if war ever were to break out, the US should plan to launch extensive bombing raids across mainland China. China’s “anti-navy” of missile bases and surveillance equipment is based at facilities spread across the country, including in many built-up areas. The basic idea behind AirSea Battle leads to a fairly uncompromising conclusion that, in the early stages of a conflict with Beijing, the US should destroy dozens of military sites. It is the navy’s version of “shock and awe” for 21st-century Asia.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
Except they sell us critical stuff and in return they lend us $$$/.
Red China never stopped being at war with the USA and has always regarded us as their number-one enemy. They are taking the principle of “breaking your enemy’s resistance without fighting”, as outlined in Sun Tzu’s treatise, as their main way forward—and all the libs in DC are giving them every opening, too.
We can get it elsewhere and we don't need their loans.
I’ll start taking the PDRChina seriously as a threat when they start reworking their logistics to allow themselves to become a threat.
As it is, they can build ships, boast about numbers of this, that and the other, but they have little to no ability to sustain operations outside their own borders.
Personally, I put the EU higher on the threat list. Although, they have much the same issue with little to no logistical sustainability.
Yes we do, US appetite for spending and not raising taxes to pay for it demands a huge supply of borrowed $$$.
I don't think it's aimed specifically at the US. And it's not even Marxist-Leninist. Taiwan's Nationalist Party - the one that fled the mainland to fight a last stand before Truman decided to use the 7th Fleet to keep China from invading - claims to be the sole legitimate ruler of China. Its Chinese map includes all of the disputed territories China is claiming, as well as Mongolia and Siberia. China has traditionally thought of itself as the rightful center of all under heaven, and the rest of the world as its rightful vassal states, to be absorbed as provinces at China's convenience.
Since the turfing of Mao's hand-picked protege, Hua Guofeng, in 1979, and the move to end central economic planning, China has been moving unstoppably towards parity in GDP per capita with the West, much like the Japanese several decades ago. The question is what it will do with its newfound wealth. Man does not live by bread alone. Here's to hoping that they don't emulate the Germans, who, despite being the richest country in Europe just prior to WWII, nonetheless decided they needed lebensraum.
Socialist Autocrat’s program of fundamental transformation has essentially been completed. Irredeemably debt laden and leaderless America is no longer a force of global influence to be taken seriously.
Are you a China watcher on the hardware side? I know there are people whose hobby is to keep track of more glamorous things like war planes, warships, artillery, tanks, and so on, but few who actually look at logistics. I'm sure there are pros who look at logistics, but hobbyists go for the glitz. Jeff Head has been tracking China's carrier development for a good long time, but I don't think I've seen anything about logistics.
Watching PDRChina used to be a job of mine, way back when. But, I’ve got no access to any real info and haven’t for decades.
The logistics is the thing to watch, though, imo.
More to the point than “watch logistics”, watch for large movements of troops within their own borders, and large fleet movements.
They’ll need work sorting out the log train and that’s done with large scale exercises.
Now, keep in mind I don’t watch careful so they might have already begun the process.
There will come a time when China will turn on us, and bite off the hand that feeds them. It will come quick. When it does, they will not be alone—they will have a peck of allies who wish to hitch their fate to the red Dragon. Few will be on “our side” in this conflict—we will see who our real friends are at that day. First will come the economic attack, watch our dollar plunge. Then the cyber attack, then the assassinations of key leaders in the media and politics (Rush, Hanity, Cruz, Levin etc...) Then will come the push, for us to withdraw from Asia. The next attack will be from space—with demonstartions on our telecommunications network. Only after this will they start to sink ships and bomb bases, Then threaten our cities. Will we fight back or fold up? I beleieve this world war is one we will lose—and along with it Hawaii and Alaska, Guam, and Samoa. I hope I am wrong!
Only greedy idiots ever thought otherwise.
The Chinese will have to cope with Vietnam Cambodia Laos before they move along. All of those ethnic groups hate each other and all hate the Chinese. Asian quagmire for the Chinese
mark to you
Hey, this is my country and I’m not at war with China! Why the hell do our leaders want a war with china?
Chinese society is built on one thing, which is different from American society, and this is very important for Americans to understand:
Chinese are above all, conscious of themselves as a race, and conscious of their race’s relationship (and relative status) to other races.
We have only ever seen China as a country when the Chinese people have been relatively lower status to our own.
That is (rapidly) changing.
When it does, we will see a side to Chinese and wonder where in the world it came from.
It has been there all the time. Chinese just hide that side of themselves, culturally.
America really needs to COMPETE with China.
Stop sending our manufacturing there. Stop buying everything from there.
We need to balance our budget, and bring back American jobs.
Now.
I just realized this is a long, very well researched and (quite) informative article, which is also highlighted now at the very top of the Drudgereport.
Quite long, in fact.
The author is a former Beijing bureau chief, for the FT.
Top left corner post, on Drudgereport right now.
Enthused bump.
The problem as I imagine it is from an odd angle, a *lack* of central control over outlying military commanders who in many ways are more warlords than generals. This is, of course, a poor description at best.
There is a paradox with civilian authority over a military, that unless they are former career military, they have a cultural disconnect from what a military is and does. But it is also a two way street, that military commanders are often naive about political realities.
How this works out in China is the great enigma.
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