China - the irresistible rise

No doubt those evil devils in the west, USA and Australia telling lies :wink:

First of all you somehow manage to enter Eurovision. Now youā€™re trying to relocate into a different hemisphere.

1 Like

Weā€™re already everywhere.

We are inevitable :rofl:

It will be a horrible, bloody war, if China seeks to take Taiwan.

There is no good American play. If it gets involved militarily, it will likely lose. I know America has a couple of fleets over there, but itā€™s on Chinaā€™s doorstep, and they will arm and re arm, until America is defeated, with both sides suffering lots of casualties but eventually China winning.

This assumes a conventional war. I canā€™t imagine America would want to countenance nuclear war over Taiwan.

America can just use their bases in korea , taiwan , japan to effectively block China in. I suspect this is what they will do if Taiwan asks for help.

China is different from Russia in the sense that it relies a lot on trade to establish their strength. Cut off control of the south china sea and the pacific , china gets boxed in.

A lot of this depends on how decisively the russians are contained. As of now , if China starts a conflict over Taiwan , they wont win that. The russian army is engaged in ukraine and wont be able to pressurize.

Also China can kiss what remains of BRICS good bye if they do this.

1 Like

Well , i suppose the chinese involvment in the srilankan debt trap doesnt paint a good picture.

Well China is doing a suitcase full of money tour of small island nations.

Solomon Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and East Timor.

The old saying needs updating. Beware Chinese bearing gifts !

2 Likes

The world has always been dependant on China, remember the ā€˜Made in Chinaā€™ stamp marks over everything way back when?
Itā€™s not so much a dependency on China, the west see them as a threat to the Western economy, things weā€™re growing so fast econimically for China a few years back, to the extent that they were projected to overtake the US to become the largest economy in the world. And of course the US canā€™t have that, hence everything from China is a national security and whilst their at it, stir up some trouble in places where China has an interest.
Hong Kong (where Iā€™m from) and Taiwan have been SARā€™s of China for years, why the sudden interest in them from the US? Hong Kong was fine, a thriving financial hub and quite democratic, stir the pot and of course China will assert their authority, where was the call out for democracy before? There wasnā€™t, everybody was happy, well most, but youā€™ll get those lefties everywhere.
Have any of the national security concerns been identified, confirmed and examples shared? Thatā€™s right, none.
Now, I donā€™t support China in anyway, they have some iffy rules and some of their folk (especially the new money ones) are very rude and uncivilised, but look at how the country managed their growth and their influence worldwide, you canā€™t be a threat to be able to do that, right? Influence and economics, thatā€™s what the US,and the west, (including Australia) influenced by the US are concerned about.

This is not true. China has a rich history, of course, and has, at times been a preeminent nation in trade and innovation, but for most of the 20th century it was not vital to the world economy as it is now. In fact it was dormant. I never saw ā€˜Made in Chinaā€™ stamps in my youth. In those days it was ā€˜Made in Japanā€™.

Of course, the US and its allies wish to preserve their economic influence, that is only natural, but that doesnā€™t mean that there arenā€™t legitimate concerns about the lack of democracy and freedom in China, or its growing political influence abroad. There would be less worry if it was a country with free speech and human rights, but it clearly isnā€™t.

1 Like

Maybe youā€™re younger than me :slight_smile: I associated made in Japan with electronics

The thing there is, why be concerned about how another country is run, what business is it of theirs? The US talk about human rights but what about renditions and Guantanamo? Bit extreme but you get the point donā€™t ya? What about human rights in Saudi Arabia, or does access to their oil make them blind to it?

To me, itā€™s akin to bullying, theyā€™re going to be bigger than us so weā€™ll gang up on them and tell some lies to de-stabilise them.
Whereā€™s the evidence I ask, convince me with evidence, at the moment itā€™s hearsay. Where are all these photos of the Uygurā€™s being enslaved, or of the North Korean punishment camps, or whatever theyā€™re called? Itā€™s always sources, North Korea is a secretive country so where do they get their information from? Remember they jailed some westerner for being drunk and taking some picture down from his hotel, would someone risk taking photos or leaking things to the press, what kind of punishment would that result in?
So itā€™s all down to economics and political influence then.

Iā€™m sure Iā€™m older than you :wink:

Iā€™m talking about the 1970s. China was economically irrelevant then.

You undermine your own argument by saying that thereā€™s no evidence of repression in China or NK because people are too scared to document it.

Whataboutism is not helpful either. There is a US politics thread in which we discuss many shortcomings in US democracy, but this is about China and its spreading influence.

We are all citizens of the world, and what happens in other countries is also our concern. I would like to see all of humanity living in peace, security and freedom and this is more likely when powerful and influential nations promote those values.

3 Likes

That applies everywhere.

2 Likes

Yay, weā€™re both over 50!! :rofl:

Haha yeah good catch, I was referring to the western folk, do you think itā€™s western folk or the locals who are leaking the stuff, either way itā€™s a high risk, thereā€™s no freedom of speech/media as you well know.

Aye yeah, if we could wave a magic wand we could solve the world problems and make it a better place to live, amen. Nothing worse than seeing people being displaced and starving kids. Probably too late for that now, thereā€™s too much corruption in all places and most countries will do whatever it takes to put themselves first in every respect.

So what then? Impose more sanctions on China and hope they go away? Too many fingers in too many pies and close ties with other countries for that to happen.
Plus thereā€™s the debts that multiple countries owe China, for their infrastructure projects etc. Thereā€™s a lot of talk about China bankrupting these countries e.g. Sri Lanka but surely this wouldnā€™t in their best interests as they wonā€™t get their money back, there must have been some maths done somewhere e.g. Sri Lanka
You gotta put your money on western countries doing that too.

What do you reckon, will it pass or will the west have another cold war against the commies?

Thereā€™s plenty of photos, and investigative journalism work that has been and is being done around this. One canā€™t help if you prefer to bury your head in the sand. Just look at this for example:

Or Hacked files reveal Chinese ā€œshoot-to-killā€ policy in Uighur detention camps - BBC News - YouTube (be warned, if youā€™re in HK best to access these through VPN).

2 Likes

Why wouldnā€™t it be in their best interests?

The deals were primarily established with the stipulation (and I am aware that theyā€™re not unique in this) that Chinese companies and Chinese workers were used, with very little participation from the local labour force. If the client country isnā€™t bankrupt, great for the Chinese economy.

If the client country is bankrupt, all the better as they can then start making moves on local economic resources. Ports, natural resources, you name it.

1 Like

Sorry China , we aint falling for the bait. We have been bitten far too many times already.

The first thing they need to do is agree exactly where their national borders are.

1 Like

Nah, down under so was able to watch. So. :slight_smile: thereā€™s a bunch of pictures and no one knows the authenticity of them, only the word of a western journalist, then loads of happy Uighurs, talks of extremism cos theyā€™re Muslims, then an apparent camp seen from Google maps followed by drawings of how people are treat inside. Unknown informant passing information to some chap, how was this done through the great firewall of China? Followed by someone who found his missus on a hacked file, she was jailed for co-ordinating some social gathering to disturb the social order. If you know itā€™s against the law, why do it? Does everyone in the west go looting and thieving cos itā€™s against the law? Or speed on the motorways, wait scrap that last oneā€¦
It may be all true and people can believe what they like, how does that saying goā€¦two sides to every story and all that :crazy_face: