China: Friend, Foe, or Frenemy?

[Siromizu]

Sept 30, 2008 9:46:57 GMT -5 New Dracora said:

Or in other words - if China should ever invade Australia, I would doubt many folks here would give a f*ck.

Depends what they'd want to impose after their invasion.

Sept 30, 2008 9:46:57 GMT -5 New Dracora said:

... we are like bestest friends with China ...

... increased demand from China ... We buy so much crap from China in return that it's almost at the point where it is a requirement to have business contacts in Beijing and Shanghai ...

Now this is pretty important. Australia's economy depends on China, and while China doesn't depend on Australia, it would be greatly disadvantaged without reliable supply of Australian resources. As long as Australia remains friendly with China, any actions they take in defiance of the U.S.A. (including any against Japan) are going to be a big mistake for them.

Thus, at this stage, I am more concerned with India; while it is not so far developed as China at this stage, it has far more potential, considering a better level of education in general, and a freer people. India is looking like it will, in fact, overtake China in terms of global significance some time soon. As soon as they have that sort of position, I would expect border consolidation and perhaps then conflict with the Arab world after conflict with certain Islamic nations... which potentially means the U.S. will support them.

As it stands, it's important to keep an eye on both China (but I think they won't be a threat any time soon - but may become one later) and India (who look to overtake, and potentially out-muscle, China - for better or for worse).

Sept 30, 2008 2:05:00 GMT -5 Iwerddon said:

If elements of their culture don't change (and I doubt they will) they could even be bold enough to 'punish' (with huge support from their citizens) the Japanese - whom... to put it lightly... they hate.

Give it forty years or so, and that will all be well and truly history rather than experience. By the time China's a danger, Japan will be far from a priority.

[Geilinor]

China is a frenemy. China is our friend because we depend on it to produce many of the goods we use cheaply. China is our enemy because it's getting too powerful and stealing too many jobs.

[Consortina]

Jul 1, 2010 8:26:12 GMT -5 Guy said:

If the U.S. embargoes China for 48 hours, they'll be on their knees begging us to stop. That's what we need to do.

This would be a very bad idea, too. China has lots of natural resources (Lithium!) that will soon give it a lot of leverage in trade agreements. It would be a good idea to establish bilateral friendly connections - a power struggle against China will have dire consequences in the long term.

[Risoid]

i personally haven't met china yet, so i must remain neutral on the subject. i have met mexico, however, and he's kind of a drunk. fun at parties, though

[SO-VI_ET_0246]

I was reading the discussion with large amounts of interest and i noticed several thing's which are:

1:

This discussion in purely based on the old model of a super power which comes forth of the cold war era. The cold war super power is based on the military and brute force(biggest army, nuke's that sorts of stuff) which i refer to as a "Hard power". The idea of a "Soft power" even hasn't been mentioned let alone be discussed so here comes my explanation of a "Soft power" based on the European/Chinese model.

A soft power relies heavily on the intellectual , economic power of a government, on the sphere of influence which is build around cultural, political and economic influence. Lets take the European union as a example.

The European union has the biggest economy in GGD capita around the world, so it produces and has more services and a higher farming output than the USA which means the economical influence is far greater than that of China. The political sphere is also greater than that of the USA, take for example the African Union, The South-American union and the Arabic union. All of those unions are based after the European union so inherently the EU has more to say in those unions than the USA or China. The European union still lacks the cultural influence to become a true soft super power.

2:

What i also noticed and bugs me to an irritating point is the virtual power. China has a way bigger and better cyber-army than the USA. China is already building that army for over 20 years now and the USA has just stared to build it up in 2009 with the creation of the cyber high command.

This means that China has the ability to completely cripple the US economy by shutting down the power supply or create a worm like the Stuxnet worm that caused milliards of damage in Iran, that was just one well written worm.

[Deleted]

China controls most of the US debt, all they have to do is demand payment and the US is screwed because we dont have that type of money. If China becomes the lead military and economic nation who know what they will do. i agree with what was said previously, they would go after Taiwan and Japan and test the US to see if we would do anything to stop them; because at the moment the US is the only thing keeping China on a leach.

[Enigmatic]

Actually, I believe I was reading somewhere that Japan now controls most of the US debt. Don't quote me on that though.

[Mike the Progressive]

An enemy in the long run. I'd recommend sending troops to Taiwan, just to tick the Chinese off.

[SO-VI_ET_0246]

mike,

Why would you invade the Republic of China to tick of the People's republic of China?

[Mike the Progressive]

Jan 18, 2011 4:52:59 GMT -5 SO-VI_ET_0246 said:

mike,

Why would you invade the Republic of China to tick of the People's republic of China?

No, but I'm sure Taiwan wouldn't object to us stationing troops there, especially if it would prevent an invasion from the mainland.

[SO-VI_ET_0246]

To be honest i think the USA should actually be shrinking their army since all the problems the USA have.

[Magthere]

Jan 13, 2011 20:13:41 GMT -5 @conservatorra said:

China controls most of the US debt, all they have to do is demand payment and the US is screwed because we dont have that type of money. If China becomes the lead military and economic nation who know what they will do. i agree with what was said previously, they would go after Taiwan and Japan and test the US to see if we would do anything to stop them; because at the moment the US is the only thing keeping China on a leach.

Ah but if they beat the snot out of us, they'll never get their money back, the U.S. and China are in a forced marriage and they can't hurt each other lest they take themselves out as well. We can do things that may make our relationship more or less strained depending on what mood where in, but we're stuck in it together. So until we pay off that debt we're stuck with each other, thank you Alexander Hamilton logic. It makes the fact you owe trillions of dollars to another country more bearable.

[Dust and Rock]

China is good to have as an ally seeming as they have the largest military force in the world and practically every plastic object seems to be made there.
But you can never be so sure that countries don't just side with China because they don't want a powerful enemy.