How China's Military Views the United States

I'm not here to defend Trump because I didn't vote for him. You can see in my posts where I highlight Trump's mistakes with regard to China. On the positive side for Trump, he was a lot quicker to recognize China as an adversary than Obama and GWB (and Bill Clinton) were. It was a bit easier when China started fielding aircraft carriers and stealth aircraft, of course. Trump's way of thinking persuaded him that the answer was to try to choke China economically with a trade (tariff) war. Of course, that only succeeds brilliantly if all of China's customers get on the bandwagon, and Trump didn't even try to build a coalition. Too stupid, I suppose. But he has done a lot more than Obama ever did with regard to China. Trump is also too supportive of dictators, and the human rights violations that they carry out; so he has no moral justification to criticize China for doing the same things on a larger scale.

Anyway, this is a topic about China, not Trump. Try to pay attention.

 

There is nothing wrong with having an active footprint, as long as you aren't stepping on anyone else. The police have an active footprint at many of your local banks, with a uniformed officer inside. This deters bank robbers. It does not indicate that the police are going to take advantage of the bank or the customers.

That's the thing about propaganda. To make it believable, you have to start with a few facts. Then you draw the wrong conclusions, and then justify your own behavior by either saying that your actions are necessary, or at least your actions are not as bad as your interpretation of the other guy's actions. The Chinese propaganda in this case hinges on the idea that the U.S. is guilty of hegemony, which means that we routinely use our power to take advantage of other nations. I don't think we do. But let's look at all the cases where China is taking advantage of other countries:

1) Loans to third world nations. China loans them money to spend on infrastructure projects that use Chinese engineering. The countries get into debt that they can't repay, and they have to give China their natural resources at fire sale prices. China is building trains in Africa, has highway projects across western Asia, and is rebuilding downtown Cairo, among other things.

2) Building military islands in the ocean from coral reefs to defend new territorial claims, which include areas suspected of having oil reserves. (This is clearly illegal, according to international law, BTW.)

3) Ramming Philippine fishing vessels and sinking them, so that Chinese fishing vessels will improve their catch. (I'll go out on a limb and say that this is illegal, also.) They are also actively intimidating Vietnamese fishermen and others as well.

4) Expanding their territory on the Tibet-India border. It's no coincidence that India gets the majority of its fresh water from Himalayan snowmelt that starts near this border. If China finds a way to take this water, they'll kill tens of millions of people in India. (Illegal.)

5) Technology theft. It seems like China gets most of its best technology by theft. Their entire military is based on stolen technology, and much of its industry is, also. Their high-speed trains that they sell worldwide are cosmetically-modified Siemens trains from Germany. (Illegal.)

6) Intimidation of Taiwan. They have been threatening Taiwan with invasion since 1950, and do everything they can to actively hurt Taiwan's economy and interfere with elections and policy-making. Other countries are forbidden to recognize Taiwan as a separate nation, although they clearly are. Taiwan itself has been intimidated into calling themselves a "Republic of China", even though China exerts no control over their governance.

7) Encouraging poaching of exotic wildlife to support TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) and wealthy Chinese collectors. There are many species, particularly in Africa (where many Chinese modernization projects are going on) that are on the verge of going extinct, just to feed Chinese medical superstitions. Tiger penis, rhino horn, elephant tusk, shark fin--all from endangered animals.

I'm sure this is just a partial list. But all of these things have happened in the last ten years. You don't have to go back very far to find China's attempts at regional domination. Basically, they are doing many of the things that Japan did in the lead-up to WWII, except they are doing them in slow motion. There is no single action that is shocking enough to drive the world into a massive reaction to contain their expansionism. Basically, Xi Jinping's thinking is that the earth belongs to China, but the rest of the world doesn't know it yet. If he quietly shuffles his feet into his neighbor's yard, then he will slowly take over his neighbor's yard, inch by inch.

I don't think you can make up a similar list for U.S. actions in the last ten years. We even invaded an oil-producing nation in 2003 (spending trillions of dollars in the process), and then turned it back over to them without taking any oil.

 

Japan protests Chinese maritime survey off southern islets

China is sizing up some new property near Japan.

 

Don't be absurd. China has been making aggressive foreign policy moves ever since Obama cowered under his desk after his "red-line in the sand" ultimatum to Assad in Syria was kicked back in his face. Do you really think that the "Nine Dashes" South China Sea policy was developed AFTER the election in 2016? Wake up and read a little history, man.

Here is a little primer on the Nine Dashes Policy (it was enacted in 2009--I wonder who was president in 2009?):

Chapter 10: The South China Sea Tribunal – Law of the Sea

Please educate yourself before you say any more foolish things.

 

The eye of the beholder is the rest of the world. No one besides China actively supports China's "right" to do the things they are doing. Other nations either oppose China or they keep quiet so they don't make China mad. China has threatened countries all over the world, from Australia to Canada, to toe the Chinese line or face economic reprisals. China's neighbors are slowly getting fed up with China's actions, however, because they may impact their ability to survive.

We don't bully other nations to prevent them from speaking their opinions about us. Even if a government is too diplomatic to say anything, their citizens can feel free to criticize the U.S. We allow our own citizens to criticize our gov't--why wouldn't be let others? It may be a crime for people to criticize China and then visit Hong Kong.

The U.S. actually does a lot with charity in poorer nations. It doesn't come with strings attached, and it is often private organizations (or church volunteers) doing the work, but we are involved non-militarily in a lot of countries. I believe the Peace Corps is still active. There are groups of American doctors that offer free services overseas. Tim Tebow provided medical services in the Philippines. We build schools, hospitals, and teach agriculture. The CDC helps fight epidemics in other countries. All without invoicing the host country for services rendered. Americans are among the most charitable people in the world. The military is more likely to get headlines, because when things get exciting with the military, they get really exciting. Not so much with the Peace Corps--excitement is someone getting drinking water without having to carry a 40-lb jug on top of their head for hours at a time.

 

China has been using spies from other Asian countries to gather information for them.

Singapore man admits being Chinese spy in US

I thought China usually used foreign spies to try to purchase military equipment. They had used a Korean spy, I believe, some years ago to try to buy an F-16 engine from a repair place outside of a base.

 

China is at it again . . . loaning a billion dollars to Caribbean nations so they can buy a Chinese Covid-19 vaccine.

"Let me get this straight--you guys unleashed this coronavirus on the world, and since you now have a vaccine for it, you are charging everyone a fortune for it?"

"Correct. New Chinese economic model. You did not buy Chinese 5G network. Pay up or die."

China makes $1bn loan to Latin American and Caribbean countries for access to coronavirus vaccine

 

Here is a strange one: China has been mailing packages to U.S. residents that are labeled "Jewelry", but contain unidentified seeds. They don't know if China is trying to get invasive species to proliferate, smuggling narcotics, or doing something else.

People in the US have reported receiving packages marked as jewelry that actually contain mysterious seeds from China

 

Apparently, this is part of a "brushing" scam. A vendor sends out cheap products and then pretends they are the buyer and enters a favorable review on-line to boost their own ratings.

Officials think mysterious packages from China containing seeds are part of an online scam

 

Chinese fishing fleet invades Ecuador (owner of Galapagos Islands) in apparent repeat of 2017 invasion.

Ecuador on alert over huge Chinese fishing fleet off Galapagos Islands

I would guess that they travel in a large group to make it harder to enforce fishing regulations. They initially stay outside the exclusion zone and then a few wander in if no one comes out to challenge them.

260 Chinese fishing boats have been spotted off the coast of the Galapagos Islands, and Ecuadorian officials fear they'll harm the area's precious marine life

 

Don't be ridiculous. China's actions with Trump in office are just a continuation of China's actions under Obama, which started shortly after his red-line-in-the-sand was rejected by Assad in Syria. There is something that might be accelerating them, but I don't think it's Trump. (Trump is doing the same freedom of navigation exercises that Obama did.) It's coronavirus. Jinping is using aggressive foreign policy as a distraction to his failures to contain coronavirus, which could be an existential threat to the Communist Party, since a lot of Chinese know the truth about what's been happening, and many have lost faith in their leadership.

You can now consider yourself to have been educated.

 

I'm guessing you've never been to China, Rambling Man. You don't seem to know what you're talking about, as usual. You should probably be "bared" from this thread on general lack of logic and sense.

And I would rather be split-tongued than split-brained. Some good advice: don't shoot off your mouth if your brain's not loaded. You may not be quite so proud of your post when you sober up in the morning. Don't forget to "breath" during your run-on sentences about getting people to "wash they hands". It's called English--look into it.