ohmrlobalobayeh
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The rich talks.
The poor stfu.
The poor stfu.
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IHere is the list of the top 10 military powers:
1. US
2. China
3. Russia
4. India
5. UK
6. France
7. Germany
8. Brazil
9. Japan
10. Turkey
Actually it is about China's power. If China was Iraq, then yea, America has allies. However, China is China. Who's going to go in on China if all they have to gain is nothing, and has the potential to lose half their cities and armies for essentially America's goal of maintaining primacy.
You mention all-weather friends, I believe at this point, that is only Pakistan. We have a defense treaty with NK, but as I mentioned, a piece of paper means far less than the actual situation. China supporting the North is not only in bad taste, but could potentially turn it into something we don't want to get into right now.
As to Russia, they won't move one finger, and Sudan has nothing even if they wanted to do something. Toyotas can't run on water unfortunately.
Let's me ask you this, if India, tomorrow, condemns Assad's chemical attack and decides to go to war, loses maybe 200 men, would you be ok? Someone might question the wisdom of such a move, but the overall impact is not that bad. However, if India goes in on China and won, but gains no territory or anything(Americans maybe a lot of things but giving territories after wars is not one of them) and loses 100,000 men, would you still be cool with it?
I am not questioning America's alliances, or its power, but I doubt the desire of other nations to get destroyed, all for the sake of, btw, destroying their biggest trade partner.
This is true for Japan, Korea, America, Australia, and India for that matter.
The list, I take it from Global firepower is utter baloney. The Germans, Japanese and Brazilians haven't fought a war in the modern era. Most of their populations don't even want to fight for their country.
I think you are right in your assessment that nobody would want to go to war with China. Absolutely no one, including the US. And for the reasons you cited - cost is too high in military and economic terms.
That makes the issue of allies all the more relevant. Because regardless of whether there is war, containing China and checking its rise is undoubtedly on the American agenda. So I expect limited trade wars where tariffs are slapped on imports, proxy wars such as Syria, continuing racheting up of tensions in South China Sea, secret attempts to scuttle trade deals that the other side might try to make with smaller partners, and so on.
And that is where I think China has made a mistake. You may not think much of Indian help, but it has needlessly created tensions through support to Pakistan on issues that they could have simply ignored. Pending disputes between India and China are so small compared to the level of economic and trade engagement between them that it was utterly needless.
You did mention that all countries trade with China and gain from this trade, so why would anyone risk it? Yes, no one would risk war, maybe, but they will definitely risk proxy wars. Because let's face it - geo-politics is still played on outdated notions if zero sum games. I personally think zero sum thinking is not productive, but I am not the one taking these decisions.
If you study the Chinese government's approach to certain countries, you will also see the same. Instead of simply focusing on trade and investment which will benefit all, the Chinese government makes an issue out of meaningless territorial disputes which do not really affect it in the least. It also tries to check the growth of other countries because it sees their increasing influence as a loss for itself.
So trust the other countries to think and behave in the same manner, whether or not it makes sense.
First of all, Indian members were all excited by Vietnam visits and "potential sales" of Indian weapons. That is no where near the level of Pakistan China relationship. Either in its depth or in the other's strength. Why didn't India think of China when you did that? Why did America ignore China when it comes to Japan, we are by far the most important trade partner for the US, and Japan isn't even number 2 or 3, and yet here we are.
The fact of the matter is This type of relationship with Pakistan is worth so much more, and very rare in today's world. Think of my first post, when I said 20 years, that's actually being generous, because it's not really measured in years.
India has no such partner as Pakistan, and likely won't find one. At this point, Pakistan is far more important to China than India, and it's not even close.
Saying Syria is a proxy war for China is like saying burning down your own house is proxy burning my house.
China isn't risking anything, as of this writing, China's trade with the US and India has gone up, not sure about the other ones, but both Japan and Korea has a trade surplus with China, and going by American logic, who's got the upper hand there.
Eventually this will play itself out. Visit Chinese defense, soon China will eclipse all of Asia's navy combined. Then it will be a no contest and the conflict will end. China will make a few concessions here and there. China will eventually negotiate, but it must be on our terms for it to mean anything.
Yes, India does not have an "all-weather" friend like Pakistan. But I think that the friend in question is Pakistan itself explains a lot, as to how difficult China finds the task of making friends. Now don't tell me that China wouldn't have ideally wanted India, Russia or South Korea to be the closest allies. The same would apply to India, US or any other country. You want the strong as allies, not the ones you are stuck with.
This is where I think we totally differ in our views. You think that as a rising power, China can "afford" so many issues with neighbors, or rather that they are even inevitable. I think you miss a very simple reality.
There is a simple rule between two adversaries - be who has more to loose must carefully weight their options. As far as global geo-politics is concerned, India is nowhere in the same league as China. So as far as that is concerned, it is all for China to loose. India hasn't even gotten there yet. By having so many issues with India, from Arunachal to using vetoes and technical holds, China is merely cultivating a detractor it could do without.
The same equation holds true for India and Pakistan. Between the two, India has more immediate higher aspirations in the global scenario, and Pakistan has little to lose in this regard, no matter what Pakistani members here may claim. So India gains nothing by its enmity with Pakistan, it will continue to drag it down as we need to divert resources that could have been much better utilized elsewhere.
I am afraid you are taking a rather simplistic view in which highly unpredictable things seem a matter of due course. China today is roughly in the same position as US in the first decade of the 20th century, strong but untested. But there is a vital difference. Every rising power will have its detractors and competitors. Germany was competing with the US in industrial might, whereas Japan saw it as a rival in the Pacific. But beyond that, the US did not have any obvious enemies. And even with those two, it had to rely be on a far superior coalition to beat them in the end. China has not a single such strong friend, and although it does trade and business with all countries, they are all intent on curtailing its rise as well.
The scenario you envisage where China's military might will go uncontested, IMO, is highly contingent. It will be unchallenged if China is pacifist. However, if it is not, and decides to go the way of Germany and Japan, then it will meet a similar fate.
PS. While studying history, I always found the German and Japanese hubris of going to war with the entire world as insane. It seemed inexplicable as to how or why two countries who were merely rising powers could think they can defeat the combined might of the West as well as Soviet Union. I can now see how that kind of hubris arises.
Indian, they thought India is very powerful ... but the national data looks not beautiful, why Indian always focus on China why not compare with S.Korea or Japan ?
"India has"
"Indians Are"
"Due to arming Pakistan"
Stopped reading. Another Article written solely for Amusement of Indian masses.
No, nothing has changed. Something may have changed in people's arguments, but nothing really has changed.
You have to consider what you are saying. You are saying these 4 countries needs to join together to take on the second most powerful nation in the world. Outside of the US, the other three combined has about the same GDP as half of China.
You are asking them to damage their economies, or worse, lose their lives to help against China that really only serve the US.
I have no question that the US will do something, but other than the US, there needs to be a lot more than just a perceived threat to act. China is not Iraq. Even on the losing end, China can cause a level of damage none of these guys can possibly handle.
In terms of India, China and India will be at least rivals either way, so why not get started now when India has no real way of firing back. By the time India may have something, China would finished with east Asia and India will be in the exact same spot as we were 20 years ago to now.
Actually it is about China's power. If China was Iraq, then yea, America has allies. However, China is China. Who's going to go in on China if all they have to gain is nothing, and has the potential to lose half their cities and armies for essentially America's goal of maintaining primacy.
You mention all-weather friends, I believe at this point, that is only Pakistan. We have a defense treaty with NK, but as I mentioned, a piece of paper means far less than the actual situation. China supporting the North is not only in bad taste, but could potentially turn it into something we don't want to get into right now.
As to Russia, they won't move one finger, and Sudan has nothing even if they wanted to do something. Toyotas can't run on water unfortunately.
Let's me ask you this, if India, tomorrow, condemns Assad's chemical attack and decides to go to war, loses maybe 200 men, would you be ok? Someone might question the wisdom of such a move, but the overall impact is not that bad. However, if India goes in on China and won, but gains no territory or anything(Americans maybe a lot of things but giving territories after wars is not one of them) and loses 100,000 men, would you still be cool with it?
I am not questioning America's alliances, or its power, but I doubt the desire of other nations to get destroyed, all for the sake of, btw, destroying their biggest trade partner.
This is true for Japan, Korea, America, Australia, and India for that matter.
typical Indian POV... I guess some people just never learn.
The list, I take it from Global firepower is utter baloney. The Germans, Japanese and Brazilians haven't fought a war in the modern era. Most of their populations don't even want to fight for their country.
China definitely do not want to have any idea of being an ally to india. Let me tell why?Yes, India does not have an "all-weather" friend like Pakistan. But I think that the friend in question is Pakistan itself explains a lot, as to how difficult China finds the task of making friends. Now don't tell me that China wouldn't have ideally wanted India, Russia or South Korea to be the closest allies. The same would apply to India, US or any other country. You want the strong as allies, not the ones you are stuck with.
Dude, World has changed totally. People should learn from history ,not swallow it.I was giving the example of a proxy war in general, not for China.
This is where I think we totally differ in our views. You think that as a rising power, China can "afford" so many issues with neighbors, or rather that they are even inevitable. I think you miss a very simple reality.
There is a simple rule between two adversaries - be who has more to loose must carefully weight their options. As far as global geo-politics is concerned, India is nowhere in the same league as China. So as far as that is concerned, it is all for China to loose. India hasn't even gotten there yet. By having so many issues with India, from Arunachal to using vetoes and technical holds, China is merely cultivating a detractor it could do without.
The same equation holds true for India and Pakistan. Between the two, India has more immediate higher aspirations in the global scenario, and Pakistan has little to lose in this regard, no matter what Pakistani members here may claim. So India gains nothing by its enmity with Pakistan, it will continue to drag it down as we need to divert resources that could have been much better utilized elsewhere.
I am afraid you are taking a rather simplistic view in which highly unpredictable things seem a matter of due course. China today is roughly in the same position as US in the first decade of the 20th century, strong but untested. But there is a vital difference. Every rising power will have its detractors and competitors. Germany was competing with the US in industrial might, whereas Japan saw it as a rival in the Pacific. But beyond that, the US did not have any obvious enemies. And even with those two, it had to rely be on a far superior coalition to beat them in the end. China has not a single such strong friend, and although it does trade and business with all countries, they are all intent on curtailing its rise as well.
The scenario you envisage where China's military might will go uncontested, IMO, is highly contingent. It will be unchallenged if China is pacifist. However, if it is not, and decides to go the way of Germany and Japan, then it will meet a similar fate.
PS. While studying history, I always found the German and Japanese hubris of going to war with the entire world as insane. It seemed inexplicable as to how or why two countries who were merely rising powers could think they can defeat the combined might of the West as well as Soviet Union. I can now see how that kind of hubris arises.
China definitely do not want to have any idea of being an ally to india. Let me tell why?
First of all, there are thousands of slave masters or their descendants under indian shelter dreaming of separating Tibet from China.
When the Tibet issue exists ,there is no even 1% of possibility of substantial political trust between both sides.
Second, India is too self-esteem. India's ambition always goes way way ahead of its strength.
In 1950s, when india just got independence from Britain as a poor and developing with such a mass of population to feed, Nehru was so optimistic to come up with the opinion that Indian is the leader of the third world.
Besides, as other post has said China prefer to spend more resource on inner affairs , that's right , Chinese culture values the qualities of humbleness and modest , but indian as a nation , my personal opinion, is too passionate to face reality.
Having an ally as India is too risky to be dragged into some meaningless and unpredictable conflicts.
Being an ally means a responsibility to other nation, meanwhile, a menace to the ally's adversaries.
China is not in a position under urgent outer threat , for now, the national strategic direction is developing economy and improving people life.
China wish to do business with as many states as possible.
Being a member of international organization related to trade or culture or is interesting to China.
Being an ally of a strong country which will cause other's hatred is definitely a deviation to China's strategy.
Dude, World has changed totally. People should learn from history ,not swallow it.
In the past, war was started by overestimating yourself and underestimating your enemy.
Since the nukes come out , there are overwhelming defeat to a nuclear power.
There is an American saying, if you can not defeat your enemy, then join it.
Suppose that Britain, Germany , France all had nukes in 1914 , I bet 100% there would have a meeting discussing how to divide up Balkan rather than declare war on each other
The cold war is over, the globalization in all fields is the trend.
Do business with anybody, make yourself rich.
The more rich the country is , the more cash it could used to develop technology and education.
The more advanced the technology is, the stronger the defense will be.
It is a positive chain reaction and is what China did in last 40 years.
There is a new revolution of technology right out.
US , China, Japan, Germany have been pouring tons of cash into the fields of AI, quantum combination/computation, Big data, cloud cal , thermal nuclear power .etc.
Everyone want to run ahead of others in the race.
Any of those aspect above cost huge amount of resource.
In 10 to 20 years, these technologies will be practical and change the world.
These state of art weapon you have or pursue will be totally obsolete.
China missed the first and second industrial revolutions and caught the tail of informational revolution. But China will lead the fourth revolution from start.
Dude, I know you Indian have your national proud ,but reality is reality.
If India still is wasting resource to prove you are the boss of Indian ocean and the strongest of South Asian,India are missing its opportunity of the latest revolution which means be a economical colony.
Sure we would, but Pakistan isn't as weak as you say, though I understand why we differ here and that's fine. As India continue to develop, it will become apparent, just how difficult it is to navigate this US centered world.
Here's the thing, we are not coming into this world from scratch. We get dealt the hand we get dealt. Ideally, we won't have that many rivals, but those rivals aren't our rivals because there we "bully," they exist because the US exist.
To be honest, India didn't really do so much to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. At least not enough for them to want to court a foreign power. Yet China is right there in the thick of things. The simple reason we exist is causing problems in South Asia. We can effectively balance you out of South Asia. That means we can get them deals they otherwise won't get. Nothing personal, just business.
Same thing is true in East Asia, the US is there and is pretty god like. If it's not the South China Sea, it would be something else. Why did the Soviet nations never try to go American during the height of the Soviet Empire.
So, while logic dictates disputes
Just as a side note, people discount Hitler and German commanders too much when it comes to the Soviets. The Soviets were just defeated in Finland. The Soviets had the great purge. We must remember Germany did defeat Russia in WW1. Germany decimated France whom it never defeated in WW1. All these factors contributed to the conclusion, it is highly likely Germany would likely win.
Now back on topic, you seem to think there will be a coalition. There won't. First, there is a line China won't cross, and it is a line that can be easily crossed. China can sink what the Philippines calls a navy in the time it takes to make chicken soup, and have time left over to take out Vietnam's navy. Yet, we have not fired one shot.
We may push boundaries, but we are not stupid. We know when to push and when to hold back.
Second, none of the countries you mentioned actually wants a war. If Japan really wanted war, they would increase their budget drastically. While they are technologically advanced, they lack key systems that would prevent them being a military power. All they did was pass a new bill that allows overseas deployment, which I might add to this day has amounted to nothing.
Australia is even worse, at least Japan is adding new weapons every now and then. Australia is waiting until hell freezes over until their subs, and their light "carrier" is ready. Mean while they been going same old same old.
South Korea? Their president attended China's military parade, even North Korea wasn't there. Why do people always forget that.
As someone interested in geopolitics, one must look at the results rather than the rhetoric. You can hide your intentions, but you can never hide the result. The age of democracy has really forced politicians to be liars as they must convey a popular message, even if it is the wrong message.
Certainly, my reasoning was simplistic, and without more time and effort, it would have to remain that. However, when it comes down to it, the world isn't as complicated as all that, on paper anyways.
Basically you're right, just some minor corrections. FX reserves is managed by PBoC, its nature is conservative, when it comes to global investment, it's the SWF (big four AUM totals $1.721T) that leads the pack of fellow SOE/POE. Parking excessive position in FX reserves is a mismanagement (unless it's a geopolitical deal), which usually exist in form of cash, sovereign bonds (US treasury bills, Japan JGB, Euro bonds), all very low return high liquidity assets. A level equivalent to several months of imports plus coverage on short-term loans would be adequate, my estimate is $1.3 trillion (note, China sustains trade surplus), excess position should go into outbound FDI, outbound portfolio investments or others (trade credit, outbound loans).China's economy keep growing fast,nearly 7% per year, China has one of the highest saving rate in this world, China has more than 3T Foreign Exchange Reserve,1.5 times of India's GDP, China is one of world's top ranking of Creditor nation, time is on China's side but not debtor nations like US,India.
Apparently, you do not know what the cold war is.No country wants a Cold War with China. All counties want to work and cooperate and live peacefully with China. But China has to cool down its fever and make compromise with its territorial demands, most particularly in the South China Sea and back off from the Senkaku islands.
You have no idea of the reason why Soviet collapsed.Face it, there are so many countries that don't like China's expansionist fever. Too many Chinese are being foolishly lead into being over-confident. China really should stop pushing or it will find itself in a new Cold War. And after decades of competition, the result will be the same for China as it was for the Soviet Union. China will run out steam and energy and burn itself out like the Soviet Union did, and might lose Tibet and Xinjiang like how the Soviet Union lost the Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
You'd better never post with lacking knowledge and common sense.I said last time that I was making my last posts but I still check in once in awhile and seeing what is said like in this thread is difficult to ignore. But well, I'm sure no Chinese poster here will take an interest in changing their support for CCP's China's foreign policy. So just injecting this as my last post. Y'all have been warned of the system of alliances that has been brewing.