Gordon Chang warns China 'configuring its military to kill Americans'

Fox News ^ | September 7, 2020 | Yael Halon

[familyop]

Chang's comments follow a recent Pentagon report suggesting that China is planning to double its stockpile of nuclear warheads in this decade -- including those designed for ballistic missiles and that can reach the U.S. The report adds a time clock to Trump's decision, Chang said. "[President] Xi Jinping has been talking increasingly about this notion that China has a mandate of heaven to rule the world," Chang explained. "They [beleive that they] not only have the right to do it, they have the obligation to do it.

[boxlunch]

It was started by some Falun Gong billionaires, but not owned or run by them any more. They have some of the best conservative coverage of events anywhere including their newspaper, Youtube channel etc. Jan Jakeliek is a great interviewers, he really goes in depth into complicated subjects. They are very pro democratic Hong Kong and report at length on CCP abuses in Chinq, Hong Kong and here n US.

[Svartalfiar]

They have over 1.4 billion people... I wouldn’t suggest picking a fight. Remember the Spanish Armada... A technological advantage only takes you so far.

That doesn't mean much. China still has hundreds of millions in extreme poverty, and although they've "lifted 700MM out of poverty", most of those are still very poor. They just moved past the UN bar of $2/day. The huge majority (all of it) of China's upper class, and even their middle classes, is on the coast. If these US ever invaded China, it wouldn't be a long mucking campaign gaining territory and fighting a billion soldiers. Almost everything of military, political, and economic value is within 150 miles of the coast. Plus, China doesn't have much actual military experience. Indian skirmishes are hardly anything. Speaking of, you can bet that if we get into a hot war with China, that India would go in and grab a bunch of land, Tibet would drop away, and Russia/some of the 'stans might swing in near the end and try to gain some acreage.

On the other foot, there's no way China could invade these US. They don't have the logistical capability to get a sizeable army to our shores, much less maintain a fielded military force. How much actual blue-water operations does China conduct? They have several carriers - Russian surplus for training, maybe another Russian surplus ski-jump, and I think two domestic ones in the works/sea trials. There's several in the South China Sea (built-up reefs), but those are stationary, easy targets to eliminate. They have almost no carrier ops experience, much less in combat. China might be able to put up a bit of a fight if we invade, but that's it. And if they do try to nuke us (or even conventional ballistic), you can bet their main facilities will be rubble in no time.

[Ancesthntr]

“It’s just unnerving to me that they could send an army of 400 million over here (more than one solider per US citizen) and STILL have a billion people..”

---

We have at least 100 million gun owners in this country.

What’ll we do if they Chinese invade with 400 million soldiers? Shoot four times and go home.

Yeah, I know, there’s no way that any nation could invade anyone else with even a tenth of that number, but even if they did, they’d loss most of them.

[Nachoman]

I was kind of thinking we could give the Three Gorges Dam a little nudge with an earthquake bomb.

[Salamander]

And if Biden steals the election, they won’t have to launch anything.

The Dems will destroy us for them.

[mrsmith]

“And if Biden steals the election, they won’t have to launch anything.
The Dems will destroy us for them.”

Bears repeating.

[Secret Agent Man]

not so sure about that ending

[Zhang Fei]

[Wars are fought for status, sometimes, but mostly for survival and loot. ]

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Most national leaders have enough loot. If you’re a national leader, wars make personal survival more difficult - they’re expensive and involve large impositions on your tax base as well as your courtiers. Then there’s the issue of opportunities* for internal mutiny as well as coups, combined with the possibility of defeat by a foreign enemy.

You’re thinking of war as some extreme resort. For a national leader, war is just a tool for achieving his aims, much as a mechanic uses a wrench to loosen a nut. Note that conquerors don’t want war. What they want are the fruits of war. Alexander was perfectly happy to accept surrenders - he spared the cities that surrendered without a fight. After encountering a reverse Thermopylae at the Persian Gate, he exterminated the male population of the Persian capital and sold the women and children into slavery. He was not happy at having to lose a good chunk of his men at that godforsaken pass.

https://www.livius.org/sources/content/diodorus/alexander-sacks-persepolis/

Would he have preferred a surrender? He certainly rewarded those who opened their cities to his conquering troops.

* For the past several hundred years, soldiers in the West has been fairly docile. Not completely docile, given Franco’s role in the Spanish Civil War. Outside of the West, soldiers are anything but docile. Chinese troops in particular have several thousand year record of mutinous activity up to and including the extermination of their ruler and his clan. In the past century alone, Chinese troop mutinies have resulted in dynastic collapse as well as major changes in government policy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuchang_Uprising#New_Army_mutiny
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhang_Xueliang#Xi’an_incident

In antiquity, the human and financial cost of a military campaign against a proto-Korean empire led to a coup against a Chinese emperor by a close confidant, who killed both him and all of his direct line:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Yang_of_Sui#Late_reign

In the early 70’s, a senior Chinese general attempted a coup against Mao.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Biao#%22Lin_Biao_incident%22_and_death

In the late 70’s, Deng Xiaoping mounted a successful coup against Mao’s handpicked successor:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hua_Guofeng#Ousting_and_death

Less than a decade ago, the Chinese official Bo Xilai was said to have been preparing for a coup against Xi Jinping.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Xilai#Downfall

Bottom line is that Chinese leaders have to worry about fending off their rivals on a day-to-day basis. Wars abroad distract them from that task. Xi Jinping isn’t doing anything of these things to survive, any more than an Olympic athlete tries out for gold medals to survive. He’s doing it to achieve personal glory for posterity, like so many leaders, Chinese and otherwise, before him.

[Salamander]

Praying with all my strength that we never find out that ending.

[mrsmith]

If they could , they’d have done it in 2016.

Different factors this time around, some in their favor, but not all.

[Salamander]

You get to babysit me and my anxieties on election night.

:)

[mrsmith]

Oh, how I wish election night reflected American’s desires...

[Salamander]

I spent 2016’s election night reading FR, watching the TV returns and clutching a Doberman.

[mrsmith]

In 2016., the 7PM results from Eastern Kentucky showed, clearly, that Trump would win.
Hope this year is as straightforward!

[Salamander]

I don’t recall what channel I was watching but it wasn’t until something like 2 in the morning that the horrified talking heads called it for Trump.

And I started crying and telling the dog “He won! He won!”

Right about now, I miss that dog even more than usual.

[Salamander]

And I *was* reading some election website that kept updating Trump’s “odds of winning” minute by minute.

When it went over 50%, I was a nervous wreck because some of those “late return/ heavily blue districts” had yet to “come in”.

As usual.

[mrsmith]

LOL!
Yeah, it was a close call to the end.

But eastern Kentucky and Indiana, reporting early, provided proof Trump would win.

[mrsmith]

” Right about now, I miss that dog even more “

Sad to hear that. Bless your dog.

[Salamander]

Thank you.

He was my angel.

The new one is just kinda nutty but to his credit, he howls like a pack of wolf-riding banshees when I leave the room, so that’s something.

[Severa]

Yuuuup. I was at work that night (night shift at an Amazon FC just south of Louisville KY) and we had the election results on the big screen TV in our breakroom. Managed to see KY go for Trump just as I was heading back to work from lunch. Even with uber liberal strongholds Louisville and Lexington, rest of the state is solid red (only reason we have a Dem state gov now is because the last gov, a Repub, went up against the teachers union and got his ass handed to him) We marked 101 days of protests in Louisville this Sat and I’m honestly shocked shit didn’t go sideways on Oaks/Derby this past weekend (Pretty sure that’s only because idiot Dem city mayor brought in a LOT of LMPD/National Guard to make sure he didn’t get embarrassed in front of a worldwide audience) Given the comments I’m seeing on mayor/gov FB live pressers, I have no reason to believe KY won’t go early for Trump again. Covid19 shutdowns plus the protests/riots have redpilled a LOT of people.