kaiserd said:
sferrin said:
Foo Fighter said:
It is apparent that the current Chinese government is keen to bully this region into ownership. I have no problems with the Chinese people but their government, along with that of north Korea makes up one heck of a threat to peaceful co-existence.
Bullies only bully because they're allowed to. If they'd been told no two years ago the South and East China Seas wouldn't be anywhere near as out of control as they are now.
Because such complicated issues can be accuately boiled down to "just say No@.
Don't disagree that China's vaulting ambitions need to be opposed by the US jointly with China's concerned neighbours, but let's not pretend it's simple and easy to do so and that it's all a question of simple resolve.
The least worst solutions are not going to be found in an internet discussion forum.
It's an interesting use of the word 'ambition'. Typically we think of the word ambition as seeking success - or positive ambition. One has an ambition to succeed as parents raising children of character, or perhaps to reduce ones 10K time, or even ambition to prepare for a particular career, such as medicine. I don't perceive the PRC as having ambition, rather, it has an
objective. The objective of the PRC's authoritarian regime is to stay in power and gather power for the party. "We must conquer the globe where we will create a powerful state," claimed Mao Zedong
Burma, Laos, Northern India, Vietnam, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Ryukyu Islands, 300 islands of the South China, East China and Yellow Seas, as well as Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Taiwan, South Kazakhstan, the Afghan province of Bahdashan, Transbaikalia and the Far East to South Okhotsk according to Zedong, were lost in the fall of the Qing empire. That list would also include what the PRC calls "Liberated Tibet". While today we generally hear of the 9-dash line and arctic the PRC's false territorial claims have a substantial list to call upon.
By design, authoritarian regimes use power to manipulate and control its subjects and with whomever they interact. We've seen this in the PRC's growing territorial claims for areas they have convinced themselves they own. The purpose being access via force to natural resources and sources of food.
It has been the policy of the United States and other governments to encourage positive behavior by the PRC. Unfortunately, it is becoming more obvious that the PRC has no intention of wanting to participate in the existing order. The PRC's plan is to develop a new order. So the world must decide. Does it want a government like the PRC's to use that same authoritarian power and control to force its 'benevolence' on others as it did in "Liberated Tibet" and seeks in Taiwan?
This is only the beginning.
