[the gillman@blacklagoon.com]

Where would they be most likely to try to acquire?

It seems to me that their immediate neighbors to the south and west are heavily populated and are already pushing their land to the limits.

Siberia is supposed to be vast and rich in resources but the Russians can be pretty tough to handle.

Khazakstan and Afghanistan don't seem worth the trouble, except maybe for oil.

Australia seems like the ticket. Thinly populated by Asian standards and wide open spaces.

[logic]

"Australia seems like the ticket. Thinly populated by Asian standards and wide open spaces. "

Don't forget newly dis-armed population!!

[harpseal]

Australia and the Phillipines seem the most likely targets IMHO.

[ASA Vet]

Australia seems like the ticket. Thinly populated by Asian standards and wide open spaces

"Thinly populated" doesn't seem like a good place to go find a billion women.

[dead]

Australia seems like the ticket. Thinly populated by Asian standards and wide open spaces.

The reason Australia has such wide-open spaces is that those spaces are unihabitable for all intents and purposes.

The inhabitable parts are fairly densely populated.

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

"Australia seems like the ticket. Thinly populated by Asian standards and wide open spaces."

I worked with a Kiwi who told me that NZ has a rapidly growing Asian population. To her surprise, her mother is becoming quite bigoted, making remarks about their driving, etc.
I found this article discussing NZ Asian population trend:
http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0,1227,196722-1-7,00.html

Most of Australia is the Outback; I wouldn't want to live there. The book/movie "A Town Like Alice" convinced me (although it was a great novel).
Australia also already has a growing Asian population.

[headsonpikes]

"Siberia is supposed to be vast and rich in resources..."

It is, and the Chinese will be demanding 'access' soon enough.

They may also wish to 'revisit' certain old border-adjusting treaties with Russia.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Where would they be most likely to try to acquire? It seems to me that their immediate neighbors to the south and west are heavily populated and are already pushing their land to the limits. Siberia is supposed to be vast and rich in resources but the Russians can be pretty tough to handle

Not that tough any more. Alexander Solzhenitsyn was saying thirty years ago that Chinese expansionism into Siberia was the really serious long-term threat to Russia, and he is right. The Chinese have always contended that Siberia rightfully should belong to them. There is plenty of oil and minerals there, plenty of timber, plenty of water, plenty of land (cold though it may be) -- and it is contiguous to their existing territory.

At the rate present trends are going, I don't see how Russia can continue to hold Siberia against the Chinese for more than another 2 or 3 decades at the most. Given China's 5000 history, that is only a blink of an eye.