Posted on 05/20/2020 2:02:07 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
China’s military leaders are fighting for a substantial increase in their budget to be announced at the National People’s Congress that starts on Friday, arguing that the world’s largest standing army needs more resources to cope with volatile challenges at home and overseas. But top of the list is the growing confrontation with the US.
China-US relations have hit a low point amid a trade war, spats over civil liberties and Taiwan, and conflicts over Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. Add to that accusations flying between Washington and Beijing about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic and it is a toxic brew.
From Beijing’s viewpoint, the military threats are surfacing on its doorstep with US bombers running about 40 flights over contested areas of the South China and East China seas so far this year, or more than three times the number in the same period of 2019. US Navy warships have sailed four “freedom of navigation operations” in the area in the same period, compared with eight in all of last year.
Lu Li-shih, a former instructor at the naval academy in Taiwan, said the suspicion between Beijing and Washington was the worst since the resumption of diplomatic relations in the 1970s, but he rated the chance of a military conflict as low.
Still, President Xi Jinping, who chairs the all-powerful Central Military Commission, ordered the PLA on January 2 to boost its combat capacity as relations worsened with Washington. That was a repeat of Xi’s “be ready to win wars” order when he laid out his military expansion plan to the Communist Party’s national congress in 2017. The message has not changed.
(Excerpt) Read more at scmp.com ...
Maybe we should send more money to some more chinese labs. Our corporations are certainly funding them to dodge paying our sons and daughters to work.
Probably will happen.
Better now than later.
[War with the United States? And short of launching nukes how the hell are the Chinks going to do that? Sail across the Pacific and attack Hawaii?]
Bfl
Infiltrating Australia with their people. Melbourne looks like Hong Kong!
And short of launching nukes how the hell are the Chinks going to do that? Sail across the Pacific and attack Hawaii?
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No need to go so far - most of China’s navy is coastal - the are more interested in enforcing their ‘claims’ in the South China Sea and the other islands further out they claim. Its a matter of losing face vs freedom of the seas.
The US Navy has suffered a great deal of ‘rot’ during the Obama years and under Bush - much of that rot came at the expense of training, scarified for the grand military social experiment which has lead to major ship damage even in peace time.
So any conflict will be long and bloody - we might lose some capital ships - a carrier or two. If there is a conflict China will most certainly begin in North Korea forcing the US into two front war on top of a relatively long supply chain in the South China Sea, vulnerable to China’s attack submarines.
I think for a good long while they thought the show the flag operations (FON) mounted by the Navy were false bravado and just for show. Now that they are preparing to enforce their claims in the region by seizing planes and vessels, they may need enough of a warfighting ability to ward off the US and all allied navies and air forces that may join the US effort. That will require a vast inventory of parts, munitions, fuel, etc. That is what they need a bigger budget to acquire.
“And short of launching nukes how the hell are the Chinks going to do that? “
Their strategy is based on area denial. They have been attempting “war” without fighting by harassing fishing boats and following American ships conducting freedom of navigation exercises. I think they have been largely successful until Trump.
Recently, they have tested the resolve of several neighboring states with, apparently, little effect. The next step is actual fighting, which will probably involve Vietnam rather than Taiwan. They will save Taiwan for a Democratic president. (I was shocked when they didn’t attack Taiwan during Obama’s presidency.)
Though PDJT has been working to rebuild the armed forces the armed forces.
Correction: Rebuilding the armed.
Correction: Rebuilding the armed forces.
We underestimated the ability of an Asian nation to do that 80 years ago
Though(t) PDJT has been working to rebuild the armed forces the armed forces.
Mostly the Navy problems stem from poor training or even none at all prior to deployment were people get OJT. This was one of the leading causes in the recent Aegis crunches, plus the watch crew did not know how to operate the hi-tech controls properly. Then, the Navy also leads all the services in social experimentation which is more and more the main mission. All the services suffer from this Obama-inflicted wound.
All DJT can do is suggest and lobby for the Mil budget, and appoint people who he hopes will begin to fix some of the deep and pervasive rot. Meanwhile Pelosi & Co do their best to undermine the whole effort.
They’re about to loose almost ONE TRILLION in internal investment with the new financial reporting requirements put in place for listings on US Exchanges!
There is no threat of US conflict. By using the word “conflict” they hope we’ll think “war” instead of negotiations. Nice try, but a failure.
This sounds familiar.
Isn’t this how the Soviet Union collapsed?
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