How China's Military Views the United States

We do have allies, but almost all of our allies are unwilling to fight unless they are directly affected by something, or someone starts a global war against the U.S. And that's why China is being very careful to talk big, but only take small steps. They are stealing small bits of land here and there, building small islands in the Pacific Ocean, sinking a few fishing vessels in one area or another. No one wants to go to war with a superpower over these small things, but it adds up, and allows them to think bigger with each success. And if anything does happen as a result and China is punished for these thefts that they justify to their own people as their birthright, the propaganda machine cranks up and they play the innocent victim. This gives them more support from their own people, which is important when the state-managed economy is not doing so well. It's a win-win for them. They can steal lots of land and natural resources from other countries, and if they do get a slap on the wrist for it, their government gets a lot of sympathy and support from their people. And they don't have to give back the land they previously stole.

The bigger question is, are any of our allies willing to restrict trade with China (and affect their own economies) over these incidents, combined with the fact that the money from their trade is being used to power up the military of an aggressive totalitarian regime?

 

I would say it is closer to Japan pre-war versus Germany. Germany's economy was devastated, but slowly recovering, when Hitler took over. Hitler was able to divert a lot of the income from the economy into developing weapons and the military, and the people didn't know any better, because they had been poor so long. Japan had a better economy going into the war, although they were short on most of the key materials for waging war (steel and oil, for example).

I have read articles that indicate that Japan might have gotten away with their takeover of southeast Asia if they had gone after the Philippines first (pretending to "liberate" it from the greedy westerners) instead of Pearl Harbor. The U.S. did not have enough of a presence on the Philippines to slow down the Japanese military. They could have set up a puppet government with locals appearing to be in charge and thousands of Japanese on bases across the Philippines. The U.S. probably would not have declared war on Japan over the Philippines (the U.S. was very anti-war at that time), but they were very willing to go to war over Pearl Harbor. An attack on an established U.S. Navy base on U.S. territory was an attack on the U.S., and almost every male over the age of 14 wanted to sign up to fight. Once they had the Philippines, they had secure sea lanes to the countries that held the materials they wanted, and only had to push England off of Singapore and Malaysia (with England much more worried about the European situation). They could have either been satisfied with owning the western Pacific, including all countries from Korea to Indonesia and Burma, or waited until their Navy was strong enough to invade Hawaii (the U.S. wasn't in a hurry to build ships for a war in the Pacific before Pearl Harbor), and then attack the ports of San Diego and the ones in Washington state, while watching the Panama Canal. The U.S. did not have very close ties to Asian nations, so would be less likely to intervene if Hawaii was not attacked, especially with military hardware needed in Europe.

So it seems like China has learned Japan's lesson from WWII, and understands that if they play the long game and attack slowly, they will eventually have whatever they want.

 

Another article on China's fishing practices worldwide. China has a fishing fleet of 17,000 vessels that are registered to a number of nations. They pull up anything and everything from the ocean, with little consideration of what's legal or illegal. The contents of the ocean belong to them, as long as they can buy enough ships and drag enough nets across the oceans.

'They just pull up everything!' Chinese fleet raises fears for Galápagos sea life

China says they don't do anything illegal, but how do the fish get from the fishing boats to the refrigeration boats if they do not transfer them? Do they trust the fish to swim to the refrigeration boats on their own (with proper instruction, obviously)?

 

An article on Australia's running battles with China. It's surprising to me that Australia is so far ahead of Europe when it comes to integrity, standing up against human rights abuses, and publicly recognizing the dangers of China. Maybe European politicians have been taking donations from Chinese interests. Australia, as a smaller nation, has a unique ability to stand up to China because China needs Australia's iron more than Australia needs China's products.

Australia faces down China in high-stakes strategy.

 

Palau, a small island chain 900 miles east of the Philippines, has invited the U.S. to build a military base on one of its islands to help them patrol their marine reserve and keep China at bay.

Palau invites US military to build bases as China seeks regional clout

 

You have to understand that Chinese companies (with the support of the Chinese gov't) use bribery to convince the leaders of the country to go along with the plan. The decision-making is not purely logical. And of course, to a country that has almost nothing, and has been like that for hundreds of years, long-term thinking is not considered as important as getting out of poverty. The decisions are made more out of desperation, which is what an unethical country can take advantage of.

 

Germany was not even thinking about the U.S. in their military planning, other than maybe the concern of having the U.S. supply the Allied powers. The U.S. had little in the way of a military, and the military was equipped mostly with WWI relics and hardware manufactured at the tail end of WWI. Ramping up of U.S. military spending did not start to occur until 1937 or so with South Dakota class battleships. Even with the slow increase in military spending, our military hardware was nowhere near as good as the Germans' until the middle of the war. The French actually had better tanks than the Germans (except not as mobile or reliable), and the British had a much more formidable Navy than the Germans based on number of capital ships (the German advantage in technology could not overcome this, except for the case of submarines). The German fleet (other than the subs) spent most of the war at base.

The U.S. did not have much of a reputation for military capability going into WWII. We helped turn the tide during WWI, but both sides were exhausted, and the U.S. won the war by throwing more manpower into the trenches than the Germans could gun down. U.S. tactics under Blackjack Pershing (which were essentially the same tactics used during the Civil War) were almost suicidal with all the machine guns and artillery blazing.

 

A Tibetan man working as a NYPD officer and a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve has been arrested for espionage for China. His salary is (or was) $50,000 a year, yet he was able to send $150,000 to bank accounts in China in 2016. What kind of information could he be supplying that is worth $150k?

Tibetan NYPD officer charged with spying for Chinese government

He even won an award from the NYPD for his "initiative". Sounds like he had a little too much initiative.

 

China has released a new video of a simulated attack on Anderson Air Force Base in Guam. China is pissed that the U.S. is being a little too friendly towards Taiwan, a territory that China claims but Taiwan does not recognize. The people in China are apparently fed a steady diet of these videos to prepare them for the eventuality of war with the U.S., and to distract them from their own economic issues. My in-laws are mostly in Taiwan, but at least one of them married a mainland woman, and her family is absolutely terrified that China will go to war with Taiwan while she is on the island. They believe that the attack is imminent.

China video may simulate attack on U.S. base

 

China's fishing fleet made the news again. China's distant-water fishing fleet outnumbers the American fleet 17,000 to 300. They have already cornered the market on squid.

US-China fight over fishing is really about world domination

Ecologically, China has been an absolute disaster for many species on planet earth, as well as global warming. It's somewhat surprising that Europe is willing to do business with such a dangerous and irresponsible country.

 

Another interesting take on China's situation. The author indicates that if China gets involved in a major war, it will likely lose due to a lack of experience. And when that happens, China will "Balkanize" and fracture into multiple pieces, which it has done a few times throughout its long history. It's a little scary considering that China has nuclear weapons.

If China loses a future war, entropy could be imminent

 

Looks like Britain is thinking about standing up to China over the human rights abuses of the Uighurs. Good for them.

Britain's trade relationship with China 'under threat' after MPs' Uighur genocide proposal