[harpseal]

yes they do have a Muslim population of 200,000,000 out of a total population of somewhere around 1,300,000,000. They are also a nation where the freedom to act for their Islamic population is very limited. In the short term they gain the cooperation of the Islamicists in subduing that population and consolidating their control within China. at the expense of a possible long term confrontation which they will probably have to face no matter what.

while I agree it is in their long term best interst to get on board with the USA in the war against this Islamicist threat what they will do is entirely their decision. I note that the Soviet Union allied with Germany to dismember Poland and take the baltic states and then suffered greatly in World War II. Had Stalin made it clear to Hitler that he would join with England and France in opposing the Third Reich's ambitions in Poland who knows what would have ensued.

MY point is we do not know what the PRC is going to do covertly and there are some rather nasty signals that are coming out about them. We ignore these signals at our peril.

Stay well - stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown

[Don Joe]

"I note that the Soviet Union allied with Germany to dismember Poland and take the baltic states and then suffered greatly in World War II. Had Stalin made it clear to Hitler that he would join with England and France in opposing the Third Reich's ambitions in Poland who knows what would have ensued."

It looks like Putin is thinking the same thing.

[tallhappy]

yes they do have a Muslim population of 200,000,000 out of a total population of somewhere around 1,300,000,000.

No.

Not even close. That would be 200 million or about 15% of their total populatiom.

It is not even one tenth that.

Maybe at most there are 10 million Muslims, most living in the remote East Turkestan region called Xinjiang autonomous region.