How China's Military Views the United States

China tells Taiwanese that China's threats of force against Taiwan is not directed at most Taiwanese, just the ones who don't want to surrender.

China says threats of force over Taiwan not aimed at most Taiwanese

 

China's stock market is undergoing a massive meltdown, with $6.3 trillion in stocks sold off. Tokyo is now Asia's biggest equity market, not Shanghai.

China’s $6.3 Trillion Stock Selloff Is Getting Uglier by the Day

 

In addition to all of its financial problems, China is losing its war on pollution. After a decade of improving air quality, China's air quality made a turn for the worse in 2023. Increased coal usage is cited as one of the reasons.

Study makes concerning discovery about China’s air quality: ‘The overall increase … has pushed the pollution level higher’

 

China's future is described as "rapidly dwindling". They are currently in their third straight month of deflation, which is the longest such period since 2009. (Maybe they should have learned to get along with other countries without threatening or abusing them.) China's fall is expected to have global impacts. The fact that the housing industry is at the center of their economic problems, combined with the fact that 70% of Chinese savings is tied up in real estate, makes this problem all the more scary to Chinese consumers.

According to Ben Bernanke, even moderate deflation (about 1%/yr) can cause damage to an economy that lasts for years and years. The U.S. in the 1930's and Japan in 1980's and 1990's were given as examples of the long-lasting effects of deflation.

China's rapidly dwindling future will shape the world for decades to come

 

Taiwan has doubts that the U.S. would be serious about defending the country from a Chinese invasion. Some of this goes back to Jimmy Carter's cowardly decision in 1979 to rip up a 1971 treaty that obligated the U.S. to defend Taiwan, and remove the 9,000 U.S. soldiers from the island, all to appease mainland China. Some of it is more recent, due to the traitorous behavior of republicans in Congress who chose to withhold military aid to Ukraine for their own selfish reasons. Many Taiwanese concluded that America could not be trusted. That's a shame.

Taiwan’s Doubts About America Are Growing. That Could Be Dangerous.

 

So . . . discuss it. You don't need to call a meeting to discuss something. Just start typing.

 

China (the people, not the gov't) declares 2024 The Year of the Widow. It is apparently extremely bad luck to get married in the Year of the Widow, so don't expect any more children for a while, even if Chinese women were willing to have children. The topic is so hot that officials cannot mention it by name, lest their wives become widows . . .

Chinese people are debating a superstition that says 2024 is the 'Year of the Widow.' Beijing is starting to pay attention.

 

Only 27% of U.S. military experts think that China is militarily capable of pulling off an invasion of Taiwan. China's military strength seems to be in question, possibly because their missiles contain water instead of rocket fuel due to hot pot usage. About half of Taiwan's military experts believe that China could successfully invade Taiwan.

Experts believe that a blockade might be more likely.

China doesn't have the military power to successfully invade Taiwan, the majority of 52 US experts said in a survey

 

Taiwan extends mandatory military conscription from four months to a full year.

Taiwan begins extended year-long conscription

 

Chinese-born engineer in San Jose steals latest U.S. nuclear secrets on more than 3600 files from his employer. The man was known in the past to be interested in providing information to aid China's military. Somehow that was not a red-flag that might prevent him from being hired . . .

Engineer steals US nuclear secrets worth millions from California employer, feds say