China isn't a military threat to anyone except Japan. The chinese just don't want a world at war with then, that would give an excuse to every country in the western hemisphere (read, allies of the USA) to ban or control their products. Their economy is becoming more and more reliant on exportation of manufactured goods and the importation of foreign industrial resources (as it shows China's interests in Sudan and Greenland).Skykid wrote:Many thanks.Ed Oscuro wrote: In short: Completely opposite to the asinine and backwards view Skykid holds here
It's true that recently the Chinese are getting irritated by NK (watching it as it happens, in-fact) but there have been years worth of NK missile 'threats' and danger zone activities that never come to snuff: including the infamous commemorative inauguration launch into the sea for which the western media had us all on shit-scared tentahooks and Hilary Clinton hyperbole despite the fact NK had invited foreign journalists from around the world to cover the peaceful event as guests (and were in attendance - not the best time to start a war.)
The US's mobilisation around Taiwan as a response to NK antagonism (so-called) began prior to Kim Jong's passing, as did their alliance with Australia and switch of defence budget to Asian waters.
Call me whatever you like, but anyone who thinks the US doesn't consider China to be economic and military threat number one (about a zillion times that of NK) has been drinking the Fox News kool aid. At best, NK is a great excuse for positioning their military in a prime location for Asia pacific control.
meanwhile, the USA is and will continue to be a powerhouse on research and 3rd sector services and their industrial sector will continue to shrink until it only produces strategic resoures. Nowadays, the USA and China want and actively work to become friends because China needs the huge and unified USA market for their products and the USA need the Chinese industry to produce their products cheap.
In a constantly globalized world, nationality or where you live will not matter, only wealth will do as the usual fat cats will start living in the Cayman Islands, the Seychelles or whatever fiscal paradise you may like. The population of the western "democratic" countries will end as consumers and nothing more. And when that situation breaks and the west falls to a secondary position in the world the rich won't care anymore, because they won't even feel they are American, Russians, Germans, British, etc. They'll feel they belong where their money is.
What is really funny is that, maybe, the chinese will be saved from this denationalization and nihilism. As their government tightly controls the economy and is ultra-nationalistic, national values are put above money, even if those national values are retorted or backwards it's better that not having values at all.
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back on the North Korea Question, and that relates to my first paragraph. The chinese-North Korean aliance is something more of a prestige thing. North Korea was the first true ally of the comunist China (which broke with the USSR after Mao Tse-Tung). Also, the scarcity of comunist states in the world creates problems inside the country because the chinese people think is a flawed system and demand democracy, the political system of the "rich and sophisticated" west. At the same time, the USA must protect their 2 most loyal allies in the Pacific: Japan and Korea.
In the end, USA and China probably want an Statu Quo on the region which would benefit both.
And what about North Korea? Well, they have done lots of ruses in the past but nothing is certain when a military regime needs to justify itself. Nobody would have thought Argentina would declare war on the UK to reclaim the Falkland/Malvinas but they did it in the end just because the Military Junta wanted to regain their lost prestige and authority among the Argentinian people.
PD: Decided to take a look at the spanish and english Wikipedia Falkland/Malvinas articles and the differences bettwen then are astounding.
