Future Shock: What's in store for tomorrow's geopolitics? [Mark Steyn]

National Review ^ | October 10, 2005 issue | Mark Steyn

[Constitution Day]

Stop me if you

[Constitution Day]

Steyn ping, please?

[Pokey78]

Thanks once again CD!

Steyn ping!

[knighthawk]

Ping

[knews_hound]

bttt

[Constitution Day]

You're most welcome.
I got a real laugh out of this:

Since China introduced its “one child” policy in 1979, the imbalance between the sexes has increased to the point where there are 119 boys for every 100 girls. The pioneer generation of that 20 percent male surplus is reaching manhood now. Unless China’s planning on becoming the first gay superpower since Sparta, what’s going to happen to those young men? As a rule, large numbers of excitable lads who can’t get any action are useful for manning the nuttier outposts of the jihad but not for much else.

[COUNTrecount]

Thanks.

[wideawake]

Say word I'll ping that mutha.

Reports of America's impending demise are greatly exaggerated. Sorry Buchanan Brigadiers.

[Strategerist]

The China-Russia border thing is an interesting one; the Chinese believe that they were unfairly screwed out of Siberia by the Treaty of Nerchinsk and a couple of following treaties; they are generally as upset about this as they are about Taiwan but it goes little noticed in the West.

[Constitution Day]

Ping away, if you feel the urge!

Never been a fan of Pat.

[wideawake]

It is pretty funny. What's interesting is that China continues to send thousands and thousands of girls out of the country as adoptees.

By the time 2010 rolls around you're going to have 50,000,000-75,000,000 Chinese men aged 25-35 who will be facing the realization that they have nearly zero prospect of ever getting married.

[dighton]

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but by 2050 China will be a colossus bestriding the world like a, er, colossus . . .

“Disease and deprivation stalk our land like two giant stalking things.”

-- Blackadder.

[LonePalm]

I remember a joke from the '80s in that it was 2050 and Reagan and Gorbachov were in heaven and looking over the side of a cloud. Gorbachov says, "It looks like the stock market is down another 150 points to a ten year low." Reagan sighs and says, "Yes, and it looks like there is renewed fighting on the German/Chinese border."

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[twigs]

And their divorce rates are as high as ours. Lots of single-parent families and rebellious youth. They are a culture in decline. They need to be careful because they could rot from within.

[farlander]

The primary reason why Russians are upgrading their nuclear arsenal. You get a few million Chinese to invade Russian east, and whoop! There's the solution for the Chinese overpopulation. Except I doubt the Russians would target the "backwater". Ahh, nuclear weapons. The great equalizers. Russians know they cannot contain China through conventional means. The problem will only grow. A nice little limited exchange (limited, since china has only limited stocks of warheads) would certainly consign the Chinese to the trash heap.

[goldstategop]

Both Russia and China are embracing to solve the other's problems. This is a vastly different world from the one in which Russia and China would be at war when Russia was an expansionist superpower under the late USSR. How times change.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Strategerist]

Both Russia and China are embracing to solve the other's problems.

Just like Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia did in the 20s and 30s.

[kidd]

In fact, it was the prime minister of Canada who last year stood up in public and declared that China was the most important nation in the southern hemisphere.

I hadn't heard this before.

What a hoot!

[.cnI redruM]

>>>>I wonder if they’re doing the same with the far more consequential death of Russia.

No, if you know anything about the Russia Analyst Community in the US Military the answer to that is a big "No." They have, however, had a hard time getting anyone's ear at all since The Berlin Wall came down.

[wideawake]

One of the things a banker friend of mine who has spent time in Shanghai says he is noticing is that the more attractive married women in their thirties with careers have the freedom to divorce their husbands and take up with 20-something boytoys if so inclined.

There are just so many young men to choose from.