Chinese Military

[RollingWave]

meh, the Chinese equipement is in all respect still quite a ways off from the US, the US probably won't be able to handle the resource and scarifices required to invade China, but China's capacity to invade it's neighbor espeically if they have US support, is rather limited as well.

Not to meantion, sine the cold world ended (and even before that) the US have rather obviously setup a pretty significant geo-strategic net around China. that hasn't really changed no matter who's the Prez.

(all the colored region in here thre are US bases, and consider that Taiwan / India / Vietnam are hardly on the best terms of China militarily here as well)



Also, Stealth technology is relative. it is not something that lets you avoid all radar always (for example, as a radarman on a old US warship while I was serving here in Taiwan, I easily tracked Taiwan's French "stealth" Lafeyette class ships from quite a ways away.) . the US more than likely have ways to detect stealth planes of similar level of quality that they posses. let alone less quality.

Trade should be mutually benifitial, it is clear that China has benifited a lot from trading with the US (and the rest of the world) in the last 20-30 years, but that's also because it started at a very low base value, if we consider abosalute nominal GDP growth (not relative %) then then is the USA growth really less than China during this span? (it is, but the difference is not nearly as big as you think.)

Anyway, back to the topic of Chinese military, the US still outclass them very considerablly, even purely in terms of equipment there's no real way the Chinese would catch the US without another half century or so, and that doesn't account for battle experience of which the current PLA have non since the late 70s (which means most folks that participated in theri last combat mission have long since retired), the only situation where the US probably will not win or at least win after extremely unbearable sacrifices would be if the US actually invade China, which I don't think anyone in their right minds would suggest anyway.

[Deadwood]

Right.

Because the Chinese aren't occupying Nepal and Tibet and threatening Taiwan.

And lets not forget, there are like 15 of them to one of us.....

[Trinnity]

Sometimes I wonder if that's why we buy all our oil instead of using our own. The last guy with oil is the last guy with a functioning military.

Yeah, I used to wonder about that too, but there's so damn much of it, if it ever runs out, hell, we'll be on dilithium crystals or some other Star Trekky thing by then.

[RollingWave]

Right.

Because the Chinese aren't occupying Nepal and Tibet and threatening Taiwan.

And lets not forget, there are like 15 of them to one of us.....

Since when have they been occupying Nepal? Tibet is a different and more complex issue though.

As for Taiwan, heh. as long as the US presence remains in East Asia they cant' invade us. we don't even need that much support, as long as the US make sure they can't totally blockade us we'll be fine. and if the US doesn't back us, they don't even need an invasion anyway. they can blockade us very effectively with a UN resolution. given that unlike Iran, we have no land routes to smuggle $#@!e.

And also, development between us and China here have been quite positive over the last 4+ years. we see China as a potential future Taiwan / South Korea, given that we've seen very simliar development stages well within living memory.

Also, the PLA is not really bigger than the US military, that's a myth. the Chinese military is also a professional force and has about 2.2 million active , the USA have 1.4 million. it's more like 1:1.5 .

[Peter1469]

The US could not invade China and should never consider it.

And so far as I know, the US Navy has almost zero counter measures against the Sunburn anti-ship missile. It could spell the end of the air craft carrier.

[RollingWave]

The US could not invade China and should never consider it.

And so far as I know, the US Navy has almost zero counter measures against the Sunburn anti-ship missile. It could spell the end of the air craft carrier.

The SS-N-22 and PRC variant have about a range of 220-240 KM and can not be air or sub fired as far as we know. which means the US fleet is pretty safe as long as it's not hovering off the Chinese coast. meanwhile, the PLN doesn't have nearly the blue water capacity to actually come out and fight the USN in the open sea.

Or the Moskit is probably more dangerous, as it can be air fired, but the range is about half of the SS-N-22. again, it's something that could very realistically threaten the USN if they are fighting on Chinese home turf, but onces pulled out into the sea the threat is significantly reduced.

But for China to succsesfully invade even Taiwan, if they assume that the USN isn't just going to let them do anything they want. they still need to come out and challenge teh USN to some degree.