China isn’t intending this to be used against western powers. China intends to use this against third-world countries with precious resources that don’t play nice when China marches in to extract them.
And it’ll work fine against them.
China’s play against the West is naval interdiction in the form of subs and MAD in the form of large multi-warhead ICBMs. In essence, they’re ready to play hard defense against people like us and ready to kick down the doors of any pissant country that has something they want. For China, power projection is exclusively about ensuring the flow of precious resources (primarily rare Earth elements) to help them continue their rise to economic dominance. That’s their vision for how they take over the world: by contract.
“China’s play against the West is naval interdiction in the form of subs and MAD in the form of large multi-warhead ICBMs.”
Equally laughable.
China isn’t intending this to be used against western powers. China intends to use this against third-world countries with precious resources that don’t play nice when China marches in to extract them.
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True. Like the Philippines, for example. Strip mining whole mountain ranges. Chinese puppet Duterte ordered the locals to allow this. Much of the devastating flooding in the last typhoon last month was due this in Cagayan...
Rare Earths are not rare. What is rare is the willingness t mine and convert them.