Strategy for Engaging Russia-China Coalition

Where's the choice to get the US and Europe independent from Chinese/Russian manufacturing and resources? Without this none of our actions really matter. If we do this and build up Africa and other Asian countries we can create an even larger informal alliance rather than allow China and Russia to take Africa's resources.

China and Russia only know strength, if we keep trying to interact with them assuming they hold the same values as us we'll just continue strengthening our enemies.

Not to mention none of the lefts climate agenda, lbgt agenda and human rights agenda really accomplish anything when we just outsource everything to countries that use slave labor to build their smartphones, release air pollution freely, actively persecute lbgt persons and use certain population groups as organ farms. It's just virtue signaling unless you stand up to the real perpetrators.

The way things are going any of your choices will just allow China to grow unhindered until it has weaponized space, land, sea and air enough to be sure of victory while hoarding enough 3rd world alliances to not rely on others for resources. They are playing the long game and we need to as well, hard to do when politicians just look at what makes them the most money before the next election cycle.

 

Militarism and conquest are not a trend. As partdopy stated, China is playing the long game. They have been buying land across the globe for resources for years. They have been steeling technology for years. They have been building their military for years. They have played the capitalist game in order to build the wealth to support all of these things... for years. Our politicians and business leaders need to wake up. China is not our friend.

 

These people really think war, militarism, tribalism and conquest are something you can solve by being nice. They don't realize these western values are not only a minority in the current time but also go against human nature as seen through all of history. Not saying they are good things but pretending we can be nice to others and live together in harmony is denying reality.

China is willing to lie, steal and cheat to win and does so constantly. In fact their strategy relies on the west playing nice while China does these things. Being nice and honest is great but only when the entity you're reacting with shares the same values. If they don't you either force them to or suffer them doing so to you. That's what all of human history tells us.

No matter, our leaders are more concerned with enriching themselves and buying votes to make the good long term choices that require short term suffering. You think Trump or Biden and their families will suffer either way? Doubtful.

 

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that you said they were a friend. And I agree with pretty much everything you said above. I do, however, think conquest can come in different forms, and a complete land grab, like Taiwan, is not necessarily the way China may go about doing it. With technology playing an increasingly greater role in our daily lives, business and the military, it is important that we have access to the resources required to make the components that make up said technology. China has been purchasing land all over the world for years for that exact purpose. It is also important that we have intelligent people that are capable of staying ahead of them in the fields of AI, cyber-security, communication platforms, etc. Conquest, in the future, may be achievable without putting one boot on the ground.

 

Russia has been engaged in conquest in modern times since the 1940s when they stopped Germany and began their push west. They are not spreading communism today, but if you view their prior actions as installing friendly governments where they actively engaged or used proxies or revolutionaries, it isn’t neigh different.

 

Agreed. The form of government and economic systems have changed, but not the nature of Russian leadership. I was focusing on WW2 and thereafter Russia.

 

It is a conquest over international law (it is my understanding that it is illegal to build an island out of a sandbar or coral reef and inhabit it, much less militarize it). Which is the first step towards making your own rules for how to treat the rest of the world. If the powers that be do nothing significant when you break one of their minor laws, then it is an invitation to break a more substantial law and see what happens.

 

I would be curious to know if an underwater dredging machine could (hypothetically, of course) be quietly brought to the base of these islands and undermine them without the inhabitants realizing it until it was too late.

 

Japan has been engaging in island building since 1987. Complaining about China doing the same is a bit hypocritical without recognizing Japan's endeavors.

It's an old article from the Washington Post (May 20,2016) but it speaks to relevance of island building and why.
Japan is building tiny islands in the Philippine Sea. Here’s why.

In April 2016, Japan’s coast guard seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel some 170 miles east of Okinotori, revealing a long-ignored fact: Japan has been engaging in island building to expand its territorial claims since 1987.

Okinotori is a tiny outcrop about the size of a small bedroom. Much of the islet lies below sea level, even at low tide — and it’s about 950 nautical miles south of Tokyo and 850 nautical miles east of Taipei. So why has the Japanese government reportedly poured $600 million over the past three decades to cultivate coral, erect steel breakwaters and build concrete walls on Okinotori, or “remote bird island,” in the Philippine Sea?

With global sea levels rising, this might seem a futile effort. But Japan is eyeing the rich fisheries and mineral deposits around the islet, resources that could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. And there’s a larger strategic claim — Okinotori is situated between the first and second island chain, a position that can deny the Chinese navy access into the Pacific. The islet is also close to sea lanes transporting materials that are vital to Japan’s economy.​