ridenrain ridenrain:
ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:
Military adventures worked for Bush, when it came to hiding domestic economic troubles, will the Chinese follow this path too?
That is one I am definately not looking forward to. China has the ability to project it's power in ways the old USSR never did. While the Chinese economy is dependant on making crap for export, there are far too many usefull idiots who are ready to sell out our manufacturing, electronics, high tech and auto indstry, just so they can save a few bucks.
China has never had an expansionistic leader like Hitler, Tojo, Teddy Roosevelt or Napoleon. Anyone who has studied thier history or knows anything about it will tell you China and the Chinese only care about the territorial integrity of their country. They don't care about Iraq, Algeria, Canada, or Australia and have no real plans to build a worldwide empire. All the wars/conflicts China has fought since the Communists came to power were border disputes (with India, Vietnam and Russia). Contrary to the beliefs of Tom Clancy, they aren't planning to take Siberia away from the Russians...
China's 'power projection' capabilities are a joke too. Sure, they can bully Brunei over an island in the Spratleys or threaten Taiwan with land-based missiles, but anyone who thinks they have the ability to launch extended operations outside the South China Sea (even that is difficult for them) is delusional. The PLA Navy lacks carriers, AORs, modern long range bombers (their H-6s date from the 1960s), and they've just recently developed in-flight refueling and AWACs planes (both are at least a generation behind ours). Thier largest ships, 4 Russian built Sovremeny destroyers are smaller than the Arleigh Burke class destroyers and they have nothing that can match the USN crusiers, carriers or amphibious ships. In fact, after that, their frigates and destroyers weigh even less than our Halifaxes, and most are far less modern. Cinese nuclear subs are also the noisest on the planet. The only 'bright spot' is that they purchased twn Kilo class SSKs from Russia. Most of the planes in the PLA Air Force are based on 1950s/60s era models. They do have modern planes, but not thousands of them like the US or Russia, but somewhere in the hundreds. Even little old Taiwan has almost as many modern fighters as the PLAAF, with Japan and the US having more. The army is fairly large and decently equipped, but without an air force to protect it, or a navy to transport it, it can't do all that much either.
Anyone who thinks China can project more power than the USSR could has no idea of the military situation. The old USSR had hundreds of modern heavy bombers, thousands of modern fighters, plenty of both AWACs and in-flight refueling planes, and a huge navy (was second only to the USN), with carriers, cruisers, modern nuclear subs and tons of amphibious ships.
In short, even if China wanted to get aggressive, it can't, short of a costly ground war against its neighbours, most of whom are better equipped and funded.
CKA Super Elite 
