How China's Military Views the United States

I'm not sure they will even need much in the way of missiles. China is planning on sending its marines to Taiwan on ferry boats, because they haven't developed much in the way of amphibious landing craft.

 

Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary explains why tariffs are necessary to force China into playing by the rules.

'You've got to be hardcore': Kevin O’Leary warns Trump tariffs on China could trigger ‘riots in the streets’ — says this ‘high impact weaponry’ is only solution. How to bet on the US in 2025

There is also no question that tariffs will also hurt the average American consumer.

Fortunately, Trump is an excellent con-man and will easily convince his worshippers that their economic suffering will be good for America.

 

China signs $1 billion deal with Bolivia to mine lithium. Bolivia has some of the highest altitude lithium deposits in the world.

Bolivia announces $1 billion deal with Chinese company for 'white gold' production: 'We hope to close that deal as soon as possible'

 

China would make short work of surrendering to the U.S. in a naval/air battle. No disagreement there.

 

Popular patent to apply for in China? An undersea cable cutter. Even a university applied for one in 2020. What could be better for helping your neighbors across the water get rid of unnecessary communications? China's government was thoughtful enough to have the university retract their patent application and re-submit it through the more clandestine channels. No sense in worrying those neighbors.

Chinese university applies for undersea cable cutter patent

 

Not exactly a China story, but Vietnam is going through some of the same industrialization process that China went through 20-30 years ago. Shoe manufacturers are finding that some of their underpaid Vietnamese workers are leaving the cities and returning to the countryside to work in agriculture again. They barely make enough money to pay the rent in the city, and the stress level is too high working on shift in a factory.

I suspect that the difference between the two countries is that agriculture in China is more difficult than in Vietnam (probably due to more rainfall in Vietnam), and there are less demands from the government (production quotas, etc.) in Vietnam, since they aren't trying to feed 1.4 billion people. Also, Vietnam has not over-invested in education like China has, making the transition back to agriculture more difficult.

'Too hard': Vietnam's factory workers return to country life

 

Hours after Trump's inauguration, Taiwan's legislature decided to freeze defense spending to make the opposition president look bad. I'm not an expert, but committing national suicide makes the whole country look bad, unless I'm missing something. Yes, Trump's attempt at extortion on Taiwan was disgraceful, but that is no reason to give up. I'm not sure Trump understands what happens to U.S. manufacturing if Taiwan's chip production stops for any length of time. I thought Trump was stupid, but not this stupid.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/24/asia/taiwans-budget-freeze-defense-trump-intl-hnk/index.html

 

I think Taiwan has a good chance against China, IF the U.S. intervenes with air power and naval power. The cities would all be abandoned or quickly overrun, but residents could escape to the mountains in the center of the island for protection. In between the coast and the mountains are a lot of defensive fortifications, many of which were built by the Japanese before/during WWII. The U.S. feared they would lose 500,000 soldiers if they invaded Taiwan in 1945, so they went for the Japanese southern islands instead.

With Trump, you never know what he might do, but he would not be happy with the economic damage to the U.S. if we lost Taiwan as a trading partner and allowed China to become that much stronger.

The U.S. can protect the South China Sea without re-branding it.

I would also say that China's potential is not unlimited. Not compared to a large democracy. The dictatorship/communist model does not improve their outlook in many ways. They have some of the same problems with central planning that the USSR had before it collapsed. Their economy is very inefficient in some ways (production over-capacity, etc.). They have probably 100 times the amount of corruption that the U.S. has. And there is an undercurrent of fear throughout the population, enforced through camera monitoring, internet monitoring, and people reporting on each other. They have nice public transportation, but no freight rail. They also have very low immigration, which means once large numbers of them were college-educated, there are too few people available to do menial jobs in the fields. Add in the fact that they have pissed off their wealthiest customers in the U.S. and Europe with talks of invading Taiwan, and they have lost a lot of income.

 

U.S. economy beats China three years in a row in 2024--thanks Biden! China's GDP per capita is $12,600 versus over $82k for the U.S.

US Economy Outstripped China in 2024 for Third Year in a Row

 

U.S. plans to defeat China in Taiwan Straits with drones, should China try to invade Taiwan.

US to deploy ‘hellscape’ of drones in Taiwan Strait by 2025 to counter China

 

China is offended by a series of naval drills being conducted near the Philippines, which they consider to be their waters (even though they don't officially claim them). China says that these drills "de-stabilize the region". By that, they mean that the countries that participate will be more likely to be able to defend themselves against Chinese aggression. The drills include U.S. and French aircraft carriers.

A flurry of international naval drills around the Philippines prompts complaints from Beijing