So, Uh, China Seems Cranky

The question is: Are they seriously planning on a mass mobilization? And if so, who is going to potentially get a "visit" from them?

For fuck sakes, shut down Trump's Twitter account!!

Begun the New Cold War has.

The Taiwan Strait might be about to become interesting . . .

He never has been before. Has he had a cock ring fitted?

Yeah Matt, what a contributor to the site you are. WTF...

So....they are not getting their way anymore and are lashing out.

Awwwhasssamatta?

Poor baby, have I not been paying you enough attention?

Aww, c'mere!

Itchicoo!! Oosaboy?

Let's see...recently China:

(1) has started massing troops on the Indian border and making incursions into Indian territory

(2) prepared to institute a new security law that will abolish Hong Kong's autonomy along with personal freedoms

(3) applied tariffs to Australian imports in retaliation for Australian demands for an inquiry into the origins of the corona virus

(4) removed "peaceful" as a qualifier on their Taiwan reunification policy

(5) struck a secretive Belt and Road deal with the Australian state of Victoria that got no public review and no federal approval

They don't play well with others. Time to move investment away from them.

Apple's moving iPhone production to India. I hope other companies will follow suit and shift their production elsewhere.

I don't believe that they're moving iPhone production, merely adding production. India has steep tariffs on goods not made in India, so if you want to sell things there, you pretty much have to make them there.

In any event, it's tens of billions of dollars of business that China won't get.

A lot of folks who publish in the Naval Institute's Proceedings have been referring to our current time being '"The pre-war years" for a couple of years now.

This'll be a weird one, if the balloon eventually goes up. Historically speaking, I don't think I can recall two nations going to war that were so economically joined at the hip. Hopefully it doesn't happen, but we've got some serious beefs with China.

One thing I am certain of: the navy the Chinese have been building since the 90's is NOT a Clinton-esque social experiment, and neither is their missile tech. If the war happens, it'll go down in the Western Pacific, at the end of a very long logistical chain for us, in a region where the Chinese have literally been building island fortresses in the South China Sea. Plus, both sides are nuclear powers. Even if we fight them and win, the losses will be like nothing this nation has seen since WWII.

And as soon as it kicks off, you can bet Iran will go all kinetic in the Arabian Gulf, as well. Adios, 5th Fleet.

As I always suspected..

And given our habit of building small numbers of super-warships rather than a large fleet of frigate-class vessels, our assets are too high-value to lose one. We get a good bloody nose, we likely cede the SCS to China and tell Taiwan "sucks to be you, but oh well."

That yoosaboy? Or that I consider you an infant?

I'm happy to be put right on the former - don't want to assume your gender.

The latter is pretty concrete at this point.

You just gave Dayton a month's worth of jack-off material.

I thought there's no such thing as gender? Did I miss a memo? Let's get some experts in here! @Tererun @Amaris ???

According to modern sociological theory, there is such a thing as gender, but it is a sociological contruct, not biologically inherent. IOW, there is no fundamental difference between male and female, other than obvious physical differences, but society constructs its own standards of "male" and "female" and a person chooses (consciously or unconsciously) into which category he fits.

Note that I am not saying I agree with that, I am merely pointing out that no one, as far as I know (and I have had reason to study up on the subject a fair amount) is saying that gender does not exist. At most, they say that it is purely subjective.

You and diac should have a baby.

We put nuclear IRBMs in Taiwan.


Call it the Cuban Gambit.

We've had myriad spawn through the millennia, during our cosmic dance. Some are worthy, others - like TLS - are just fodder or, in his case, just the sprinkles on our mocha.

No, because it's the Cold War all over again. If we don't go to the mat for our allies, they will begin cutting deals and the momentum will shift to China. China will be even harder to counter than the USSR because China has a lot of economic power it can bring to bear.

We're going to have to push back against China, and by we I mean the Western powers. Hopefully this does not lead to shooting, but they must not win.

But since the Trump administration has done everything it could to alienate the Europeans, Europe will not be nearly as willing to line up with the US against China, as it was against the USSR. There is no credible military threat against Europe from China, which was decidedly not the case with the USSR.

Trump deliberately pursued a "go-it-alone" policy, making it clear that the US cares little for what Europe thinks, so if the USA wants to stare down China, Europe is likely to say: "Fine, do it without us." It is even possible that much of Europe would be more in favor of China than the USA.

That's what Trump wanted, and that's what he's got.

And he'll cry about it.

^ That's what Donald the-buck-stops-anywhere-but-here Trump does best: play the victim, and whine about how everyone is mean to him.

Honestly, I have known plenty of cub scouts who are more mature than him.

Exactly. Lanzman is smoking too much weed.

We aren't going to let China take Taiwan. There isn't a whole lot we can do about Hong Kong but Taiwan? No that's going to be a big fight.

We take a bloody nose and run with our tail between our legs every country in the Pacific is going to be shitting bricks. Even the countries that aren't big fans of ours.

It will only embolden China. I could easily see both South Korea and Japan arming with nuclear weapons in very short order. Maybe even Australia.

Personally I think we are already on the path to war and have been for sometime. The virus, which I don't think was on purpose, has sped things up on that path considerably.

I think it's a matter of a few short years when something happens and we are shooting at each other.

We need to get all our manufacturing out of China. Especially our medical stuff. We also need to kick out all the Chinese students and nationals who are in this country spying and conducting industrial espionage.

Europe will line up with America. Not because of Trump but because Europe sees what China is doing in Europe, the Middle East and Africa with it's Belt and Road Initiative which more and more is being realized as a one way road from those places to China.

Quite impossible, I can assure you.