*** we will be fighting a war with them sooner rather than later.***
I think the likes of Pompeo and Bolton are more eager for war with China than China is eager for a confrontation with the USA.
[I think the likes of Pompeo and Bolton are more eager for war with China than China is eager for a confrontation with the USA.]
China doesn’t want war. No country, however vast its territorial ambitions, ever wants war. What it wants is the fruits of victory. Winning new provinces without war is the epitome of strategy.
Chinese leaders are like leaders since the beginning of time - they want personal glory. Acquiring new land to his domain has always been a ruler’s means of writing his name in the history books.
Alexander was the king of a united Greece. Did he need to conquer Persia? Only if he wanted children and cities (Kandahar in Afghanistan, Iskandaria in Egypt, Iskandariyah in Iraq) to be named after him thousands of years later.
Rulers of great nations are already prominent men. They want first place - not just on the list of their nations’ rulers, but on the list of great (i.e. powerful) rulers spanning all of history. To do that, they need to expand the territory handed to them at the time of their ascension to power. Nobody remembers the rulers who made their citizens rich. Everyone remembers the ones who greatly expanded the borders of their nations. These people are not interested in defense - they’re concerned with cementing reputations that will match Alexander’s or Julius Caesar’s.