I have seen lots of posts on various social media talking about how China is readying for a military engagement with the US and its allies. There's also been plenty of news articles pushing the same subject.

But I don't think this is likely at all, and I am suspicious of what the MSM - never known for accuracy - is trying to achieve.

Before I explain why, some background so you can decide if I have ulterior motives or if I'm simply calling it the way I see it. I'm 49, an Australian citizen and a commercial lawyer. I am ethnic Chinese (my grandparents fled China during turmoil in the South and settled in Malaysia, where I was born) but I have relatives who are still there. They went through the horrors of the cultural revolution and through trying to communicate with them, our family learned about what real communism does. Needless to say, I'm not a fan.

Having said that, I think it is always dangerous to misunderstand your opponent, and I think that's what the world is doing.

China isn't communist

Not any more. I have been to China many times for work over the last 15 years and although they are certainly a dictatorship with a communist flag, they gave up pretending to carry out any key communist manifesto things a long time ago. No income redistribution, no equality, no equity, no shared property. There is probably no more control over business than many Western countries. Corrupt, but that's being reduced too.

China isn't (very) interested in territorial expansion

I know lots of people will argue with this. They'll - understandably - point to Tibet, northern India, Taiwan, the Spratly Islands, etc. China seems to mostly be interested only in territories that it considers historically Chinese. There's arguments on both sides about places like Tibet. I've heard people argue that it's historically been part of China. And I've heard others say that Tibet is a separate country and people. I suspect both are correct. Borders have always been fluid and it's probably fluctuated over the centuries as one kingdom recaptures and loses territory and recaptures it again.

A cultural point - in the Chinese language, China is translated as 'the middle kingdom'. The implication is that the kingdom is immovable and static. Despite its military power through all the dynasties, it rarely attempted to conquer other countries - perhaps just Vietnam and Tibet. Compare this to other equally powerful groups - the Mongols, Romans, Persians, Portuguese, Spanish, English, Germans, French etc - all of whom did plenty of very obvious military expansion. I believe that the cultural reluctance to do major expansion remains.

You can see this in its reluctance to get involved in foreign wars. Yes, I know, they have sent plenty of advisers and arms overseas, but considering their size and power, it's quite restrained. The Russians and US have done much, much more in recent history. China is very reluctant to send significant numbers of soldiers. I think the only time they sent large numbers was during the Korean war.

That's why I don't think they will ever invade the USA.

So what does China want?

Firstly, I want to re-iterate that I don't think China is innocent. They are self-serving and they're not peaceful lambs. They are very very calculating.

I think they subscribe to the Tony Montana philosophy of life. Their goals are wealth and power. They believe that these are the keys to success as a nation.

This is evident in the area of expansion for which they are setting records. They're probably the world's biggest lenders. They are financing projects all around the world so that they control natural resources the legal way, without the use of a gun. They're backing dictators, thieves, anyone who can get them the natural resources they need to continue to be the world's factory and make goods that they can sell to Western consumers.

They're using their financial muscle to buy up land, factories, companies, brands - basically every commercial asset of any value.

And with all this ownership, they get a lot of influence. Hence the big brands giving in to censorship of critics of China (it's still a dictatorship, even if they don't send troops overseas).

Military muscle

I'm not denying that China is building its military. They're definitely doing that. But they aren't using it and they haven't tried to use it at all. Not for the last thousand years. It looks a lot more like a way to keep factories going and reduce unemployment than a genuine willingness to start a war. I know the Nazis did this too, but there's none of the Nazi expansionist rhetoric. Remember that they're already much more powerful than many other nations who already started wars when in their position.

I'm suspicious of the MSM

I'm not sure what their agenda is. Why keep highlighting the military threat? Do they really believe it? The real threat is economic. A trade war? You bet, they'll engage in trade wars all day. Not a military war.

So how should we deal with China?

As much as I love playing with ARs, that's not useful here.

We need to compete on the financial stage, and that means designing and building better products. Improving services. Improving technology.

Not engaging in self-sabotaging woke identity politics that is just destroying Western countries from within.

I think the West needs to wake up and realise that on the economic front, they're already losing the battle.

Tell that to Africa and Latin America.

Okay, Mr. CCP Wolf Warrior.

China will do whatever it thinks it can 'get away' with.

Tell that to the Vietnamese.
You sound like baizhou.

Unfortunately, we brought a lot of these problems with China upon ourselves when we gave them a free ride to pull themselves out of the dark ages and supplied them with the technology to build all our stuff on the cheap to enhance our corporations bottom line.  Now they own us in manufacturing.

Trump saw this and did what he could to bring it back to the States, but Xiden will and has killed that idea with the swipe of a pen and a switch in policy.  Why, because China owns him and his cronies.

It may have gone too far by now and they have maybe 4 years to make it all worse.

I would like to add that China will treat any foreign population it has a large amount of control over (financially, militarily, whatever) the same as it treats its citizens, because that's all it knows how to do. When china becomes the dominator on the world stage it's gonna learn the hard way that people who didn't eat Chinese propaganda since they were infants don't react well to snakes.

IMO, this is its biggest flaw and that huge influence past its borders is limited.

China is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest threat we face as Americans. They are already past us in military might, space presence, and more areas. The next 1-3 years will be interesting.

This is not true anymore.  You can say that the typical Chinese isn't communist and actually loves the US.

However, since Xi Jinping took over, the CCP made a 180 degree change on its policies and has been steering China back to maoism.  The CCP group before him was the one promoting opening and approaching the rest of the world.  Now things are going back to the old hard line.  And you probably know that Xi is now "president for life".

The CCP has been also aggressively getting large shares of the Chinese corporations and several owners and large investors who complained got the "Jack Ma" treatment.

The bad news is that the the younger generations have been brain washed and either following the regime (like the ones here in the US and other parts of the world), or practicing what's called "lay flat" (they simply do not work towards self-improvement anymore and just go with the flow and don't care about anything.

Considering how the Chinese improved their technology (same model as the Japanese did in the 70s and 80s) and other fields, we can say that the CCP is doing the US a favor for holding China back, since with the current administration our economy will spiral down and backwards, but so will the Chinese under the current regime and policies.

Yes they are a threat - the Chinese are communists, that means racism, jealousy, greed and corruption are to be expected as they are in every oppressive society. They essentially declared war on the US in 2015, focusing on asymmetrical means.

We could end China without nukes in a single strike - the 3 gorges dam threatens 400 million people and 80% of their manufacturing capacity - there were rumors the rapid takeover of Hong Kong was related to the fear of collapse in the last epic rainy season.

There military is a fucking joke, and 40% of the people surveyed in China have an IQ of less than 90 - what the US considers mentally disabled, but they have massive numbers and the human waves in Korea taught us that lesson.

Plus even Russia thinks they would use a nuke faster than most other countries.

I really think if we had to go to war with them - Japan would pull out there nukes and fuck them up first though. I think Russia would also take territory, and I'm sure the Uighers would suddenly get airdropped a bunch of weapons.

China is a first world empire with second world thinking and third world morals.

They are not planning on invading the USA because they have already infiltrated us.  They own our media and entertainment, our universities,  and our politicians.  Why attack us now that they have us?

China is going to take Taiwan and Korea.   They will realize their silk road initiative.   That is why the USA is busy weakening Russia.

The goal is global dominance by the global oligarchy of which China is a big part.  But right now the occupation conquerors of Europe is NATO/EU.  Not Russia and Not China.

IMO this whole Ukraine thing is another 9-11 excuse to expand global population control and get rid of independent minded nations.   Why do you think they are hating on the very Christian Hungarian President?

Poland, Latvia,  etc had become enduring freedom fighting countries.   But now they are totally occupied and beholden to NATO.  If they went against EU, Russia would attack they at the provocation of EU.  It is a no-win scenario for the slavic nations.  Same for South Korea,  Japan,  Taiwan,  Hong Kong.

Fuck Richard Nixon, may he continue to rot in Hell.

They are a threat created and given to us by the globalists. Kissinger opened trade there and China always had to intent to use the money from trade to challenge the United States some day and that day is coming fast.

https://rense.com/general85/china'splantoconquer.htm

Everyone should watch this video.

Not really. The Chinese want Taiwan back, but as for being a threat to the US mainland, they have neither the intention nor the capability to do it. If nothing else, the logistics of trying to invade the US from across the Pacific simply don't work, and they know it. Plus, they're not all that good at war. In Korea, they were beaten to a stalemate by a UN force a fraction of their size. When they tried invading Vietnam, they got unceremoniously thrown out in three weeks (at least it took eight years for us to get driven off). The only place they ever successfully invaded was Tibet - a country full of pacifist monks. They're zero real military threat to us at all, and still wouldn't be if the US military was a quarter the size it is now.

Please remember - China of today is NOT China of the dynasties. Communist China is less than 100 years old. They are absolutely our biggest threat, and should be viewed and managed through that lens. Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, anyone?

CCP government is pure evil.  A major threat to the world.  If you believe otherwise you have been effected by their pysops and are to tool.

needs to be repeated over and over.

 I almost got banned for pointing this out in another forum on the same discussion but I'll say it again, China's generals have made it clear they want to challenge and invade America. That they must or 700 million Chinese will die unless they take our crop lands and living space.  As for as the logistics, why can't they transport and supply an army here? They have never failed to supply us with their garbage goods for the last 30 years. And the kicker is Democrats in power, they actually hate their country so bad they will betray us from the inside with the necessary orders to ensure a Chinese victory. All they really have to do is take out our navy and while I do not know how they will do this in our current time line leading to war I am very sure they know how they will do it and that it will come to pass.

 I want to caution everyone here not to join the military or allow yourselves to be drafted into the military or the planned civilian labor brigades that will be needed in this war because the objective will not be victory but depopulation to the extent the government can get away with it. What a perfect way to get us all to walk into their "gulag" system.

consider China as one would have looked at Argentina in the late 70s they need to distract their population from their internal problems. Their population is top heavy with males, they have spent excessive funds on make work projects that are falling apart, and they are suffering from terminal socialist central planning. Granted not all these problems are shared with 70s - 80s Argentina but like Argentina they need to distract their population from the fact that socially, economically they are a massive pile of steaming crap.

https://www.businessinsider.com/china-economy-outlook-low-growth-long-covid-rebound-xi-jinping-2023-8?op=1


https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/07/27/deflation-is-curbing-chinas-economic-rise


https://www.npr.org/2021/06/21/1008656293/the-legacy-of-the-lasting-effects-of-chinas-1-child-policy


https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3135510/chinas-one-child-policy-what-was-it-and-what-impact-did-it

The  PLA royally screwed up on a simple peacekeeping mission in Africa.  They got their asses handed to them in Korea and couldn't even take on Vietnam, and they haven't tried anything since.  However....there's a book outthere titled "Unrestricted Warfare" that was written by two PLA colonels who describe China 's take on how to wage "operations other than war" and defeat the USA without firing a shot.  Y'all need  to read it...the Chinese  are chopping us off at the knees.  
The greatest concern is demographics. The disastrous consequences of the one child policy has surfaced, the population is aging much faster than the rest of the world and in a decade or so, won't have enough men of military age to do much of anything.  Their society is heading for a train wreck, and will likely be all but gone in 20 years.  Desperate, declining nations will try anything to stay alive.   May you live in interesting times.    Indeed...

Xi's trying to out-Mao Mao.

"Every Communist must grasp the truth, 'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.' ... the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party."

I had to read this post several times to understand the point of view.

Consider this:

China said they would become the world power.

China expanded their nuclear weapons.

China built a USA shaped carrier in the desert to practice blowing it up.

China told nearby neighbors that when the time comes, be on the right side of the house.

China said they will unify Taiwan.

China has acquired 1.5 years worth of grain. Aka food.

China is decoupling from us currency.



All this may be viewed incorrectly and no war is coming.

But would we allow them to rule 90% of microchip? And dominate trade? And expand debt across the entire world(like we did) ?

Will we let them do what we have been doing?

If there was ever a time in current history to make a move after saying and showing that it will be done.

It's 2024.

Does China have nukes? If so, then it is a risk. Does China believe it could survive a nuke attack? If so, then it is risk. Does China interfer in other countries and their affairs? then it is. Does it matter if China is truly communist today? No.

We truly live in the most dangerous period of time in the history of the world.

Is China the greatest direct immediate threat end 2023 October? Probably not. They rank very high on every other threat matrix IMO though, from physical to economic (granted latter frequently leads to former).