Posted on 05/18/2011 8:59:11 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
China has no intention to match US military power, a top Chinese general has said.
Speaking in Washington, Gen Chen Bingde said America's armed forces remained far more advanced than China's despite considerable progress by China in recent years.
But Gen Chen warned that further US arms sales to Taiwan could damage US-China military relations.
China regards Taiwan as a renegade province that must be reunited. 'Gaping gap'
"China never intends to challenge the US," Gen Chen, chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army, said at the National Defense University during his week-long visit to the US.
"Although China's defence and military development has come a long way in recent years, a gaping gap between you and us remains."
But Gen Chen warned that US-Chinese relations would suffer if Washington again sold weapons to Taiwan.
"As to how bad the impact will be, it will depend on the nature of the weapons sold to Taiwan," he said.
Last year, Beijing cut off most military-to-military contacts with the US after Washington announced more than $6bn (£4bn) arms sales to Taipei.
Gen Chen's visit to the US has drawn a strongly favourable press in China - a signal of the importance that the Chinese authorities are now placing on better military ties, the BBC's defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus says.
But there should be no illusions, our correspondent says, as superficial harmony inevitably masks significant underlying tensions.
The aim of China's extensive military modernisation, he adds, is to extend its military reach well beyond its own shores and to potentially neutralise weapons systems where the US has a dominant advantage.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
They probably bank on us destroying ourselves before they would ever get around to it.
I don’t believe those figures, and you have to factor the US has commitments worldwide, whereas China can focus on Asia Pacific.
“When strong, appear weak.”
China does not need many troops, as they can count on a sizable force of democratic turncoats.
China’s business is business. US business in the last 20 years has been war. Think of all the wars the US intruded into since Bush 41. Iraq 1, Somalia, Yugoslavia twice, Iraq 2, Pakistan, Libya, etc etc etc. Problem is war costs men, material and treasures. Business expends talent, material and treasures, but it returns treasures if properly structured. China will dominate the world by business, and the US will be bankrupted by wars. Funny during the Cold War, Soviet Union nearly dominated military but neglected economics, while the US maintained both and emphasized the later. Now we have only our military and in the world we are slowly relying more and more on military to push our influence while our economy was destroyed by Wall Street recklessness and gov social engineering. China on the other hand coordinates her economic objectives balancing profit with strategic needs and full employment for her population as the means to maintain social and political stability. At the rate we are going we will bankrupt our gov, and lose social stability as unemployment remains and austerity must be imposed on our people. With young people unemployed and with no hope we are sitting on a domestic time bomb. Youth uprising in the world can be summarized - “no home, no jobs, no pension, NO FEAR!!!” While we are too busy worrying about how other rulers treat their own people, we neglect how our gov and corporations are mistreating our own people. We better pull back and have troops ready to maintain order at home. It would be ironic if the US Pacific Fleet defeat a PLAN invasion of Taiwan only to lose its main naval HQ in San Diego in a riot.
We got to be the world’s superpower by staying out of wars, sticking to business and only entering wars as the last power in, not the first. It’s time to catch our national breath for a while with the pre-1940, George Washington, James Monroe, Robert Taft isolation model which served us so well in the past.
If that’s true, then their policy vis a vis Pakistan is a little dangerous.
However, no one believes the Chinese intend to accept a position of military inferiority, or even parity.
*Sigh* So 1 dimensional.
You sound like the newscasters who always want to know the one thing that will.....insert fix issue here.
China will only squeeze the business aspect when it works. Once it stops working, things will change.
As a wee lad 35 years ago when I was studying military powers, it was said China does not have the strategic global power to influence the world, nor will they in the foreseeable future.
This was from people who look 10 to 15 years out.
Oh, BTW, paragraphs are you friend.
“They probably bank on us destroying ourselves before they would ever get around to it.”
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Sending them our factories and technology, certainly isn’t helping.
I’m not talking this year COL.
Put your star on and think years out.
Red Dawn Scenario: Invasion of USA is impossible.
A good model will be the Eastern Roman Empire based after the fall of Rome. Reliance on a good intel system to forewarn any impending attack, usage of dirty tricks to cause their enemies to fight one another and using the military to defend areas where the cost of deployment is offset by the areas income. No money losing wars unless it is absolutely necessary but must be short duration.
Many freepers bristle at this suggestion because it would admit the US is not an exceptional nation, and a premier world power anymore. When you are broke, no matter how smart and exceptional we are it would only be short lived.
Bin Laden may have the last laugh. After all, USA just might end up bankrupt. Just like the former Soviet Union.
That is an inaccurate statement.
The Chinese can not project power beyond a few miles from their borders.
Any ground force that does not have supporting air dominance is little more than BBQ.
And, even if there was not a countervailing air force...our Army in the Middle East today could stop them from crossing the Iraqi border...easily. Hell, they'd never make it past Afghanistan even if they sent 20 Mechanized Divisions.
The Chinese don't have the necessary military logistics or the ability to protect those lines of communication if they did.
A lot of “conservatives” are just whistlin’ past the graveyard. I'm sick of it.
An invasion of the US is very possible.
Southern border with mass movements of populations tolerant of nomadic migration and minimal support.
A foreign power who has studied US tactics in the Iraq war,knowing how to route march and live off the land reinforcing their own route march with steady rapid speed.
Movements covered by a fifth column of native socialists who would betray the Constitution in a heartbeat and second any propaganda plan promoted by the foreign power.
Its a recipe for disaster, but in the eyes of a foreign power, might be more consistent with their soulish perception of righteousness in their own mind rather than ours.
That’s a very wise blueprint and with our geographical advantages it is one very well in line with our traditions, interests and capabilities. As some others have implied on here, the one security absolute is to remain a hegemon in our own neighborhood and it has been disturbing the past generation to see our intrepid desk-bound warriors of both parties expend American blood and treasure trying to remake the other side of the world while neglecting and implicitly scoffing at more vital security matters domestically and close to home.
The Red Dawn scenario unfolding is the one danger we face from the Old World and has been so recognized since the days of the Monroe Doctrine. The hubris that has led post-Cold War presidents to Eastern Hemisphere adventures has served us poorly by expending blood and treasure while ignoring more immediate and critical dangers starting at the Rio Grande.
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