Nothing stays the same.
Fact:
China stated they would reduce their military active military force by 1 million two years ago and met that goal this year.
Fact:
China has publicly stated they will not pre-emptively attack a sovereign nation and their history proves that.
Fact:
Taiwan has a historical connection to China and in the past it was a province. China wants it back under the concept of one country, two governments, same as Hong Kong.
Fact:
Taiwan and China has normal trade, tourism, cultural and scientific exchanges, diplomatic missions, etc, in each others countries.
Once a year or so they dust off their sabers and rattle them at each other, then go back to normal relations. I suspect it is to appease the haters on both sides and for the USA. I think that Taiwan and China will be reunited peacefully after China has had enough government change and its economy is number one that it would be in the best interests of each country to unite for their common good.
Fact:
The last invasion China did was in the late 70's when they invaded Vietnam because they were giving China a lot of trouble on their southern border. The war lasted one month to the day and China then left, slamming the door behind them and pretty much said, 'screw with us again and we'll come back and do it worse.' Seems to have worked.
Fact:
China, as indicated above, has little experience waging war. The war in Vietnam got bogged down during the second week and China had to regroup. That was because of bad planning due to lack of experience. How in the world is China going to go up against the USA experience? By getting it from other places? Yet China does not have an imperialistic nature. Can you honestly say they will take a few thousand years of not being imperialistic and understanding its shortcomings to reversing that?
Fact:
Mao was going to invade Taiwan in the early 50's but then the Korean war happened and McArthur, upon reaching the China border, made overtures that Beijing would be next, thus saving Taiwan because Mao sent his army in and pushed the Americans down almost off the Korean Peninsula.
Fact:
China is going through much needed modernization of its military because it economy can now afford it. They have no intention of building a massive blue water fleet, or an army that can invade other countries.
Fact:
China is not imperialistic whatsoever. It's history proves that and the wisdom of China understand that to push itself onto others is expensive, counter productive to their economy and produces a lot of hate from other countries. Why in the world would China want to do that when they are doing it better economically that can be controlled, whereas war and its outcome usually ends up not as envisioned?......our two wars prove that. Vietnam proves that as well.
Fact:
China is communism in name only, even Henry Kissinger and many others agree to that. Capitalism and communism are polar opposites. China is not socialistic either because they have a free market system. Nor are they a dictatorship since their leadership is elected by their legislative body, much like what is done in England and other countries. Nor are they totalitarian since that means that every aspect of a citizens life is controlled and yet the people can go into business, quite their job, move and travel at will, and travel outside the country.
What is China's government? Slowly morphing from communistic totalitarian state to a capitalistic socialistic democratic republic, much like our own, at their own pace, not the pace the west wants. China is smart enough to understand that instant change often has negative social consequences. Our two wars prove that.
I fail to understand how all you armchair generals seem to know so much about war and how to wage it, but know squat about China and its history. Thus making bone headed accusations, assumptions, and predictions.
I know, I live in China as an ex pat from the USA and I, like you, believed all the china crap till I really started looking into it. That is when I realized, that what we are spoon fed and what is reality are usually two different animals. The wars we are in prove that, and the pending war in Iran prove that as well. All we have to really go on is what the government is telling us. We should all know better not to trust them now, yet we still do.
Now to answer the question:
China is not our biggest enemy. They do a great job in planning for their future. They have gone from an economic has-been 20 years ago to world class, and that was done through a series of 5 year plans. Our biggest ally is China and its planning - we can learn so much from them. Our biggest enemy is ourselves because we don't plan and instead just muddle along as we have done for decades -- which served us well -- but now in this global economy, lack of planning is going to be our biggest enemy------NOT CHINA.
Peace
Jim
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Source(s):
http://www.cia.gov Basic world facts
http://www.china.org.cn There you can see the white papers that China has published about its military, to its five year plans going back to the mid 50's, to its culture and dreams for the future.
Where can you find that in the states?
What are America's plans for the future?
Ask any American what its plans are for the future and the best you’ll get is a rah-rah patriotic driven rant, or more then likely, a deer in the headlight stare because no American has any idea where we’re heading. The only one I can think of is Cheneys energy plan and that was held in secret.
Ask the average Chinese what their countries plans are for the future, at the very least they know it exists and at the most, they can find those plans in detail in any number of publicans or on the net.
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Life is so simple, but we insist on making it complicated
Confucius
551 - 479 BC
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Peace
Jim
.