So, while everyone is watching Iran, Syria, and North Korea, our good buddies the Chinese have been developing the ability to shoot down our satellites. From CNN: U.S. official: Chinese test missile obliterates satellite.
And what exactly is the Shrubbery going to do about the country that controls such a huge chunk of the American debt that he ran up, if they decide to start knocking our intel and GPS satellites out of the sky?
On-line Opinion Magazine featuring annoyed rumblings from the leading edge of the Baby Boom firmly tied to a reality-based world.
Established: 21 November 2004
The opinions expressed in Comments are those of the individuals making them. Truly absurd comments and opinions are subject to being cruelly mocked, but "flame wars" will take place on someone else's dime.
Your first comment, all comments with extensive links, and random comments that the software decides it doesn't like for no discernible reason will be held for moderation.
[Be aware that for unknown reasons the software rejects comments shorter than 15 characters, so if you want to leave a short comment fill the gap with periods ........]
5 comments
For the moment, Shrubbery is stranded. What can he do? rattle his nukes at China? I don’t think so, not unless they were to take action against a U.S. satellite. Um… as I write that, I am reminded that Dub is certifiably nuts. Never mind.
The U.S. demonstrated similar capabilities in 1985, and I presume the Shrubbery hasn’t managed to destroy that weapon system as well. China has satellites of its own, and many of its businesses depend on our having our satellites in working order. I would think that fact, coupled with China’s need for trade with the U.S., would do a lot to discourage China from following through with its implied threat. I think this demonstration, like N. Korea’s nuke tests, has to be mostly posturing.
I’m no expert, but I’m sorry; I don’t buy John Pike’s Taiwan scenario. If the confrontation came to the point at which China chose to render the U.S. “blind,” things would already be so far down the road to all-out war that U.S. weapons would already have been targeted long since. Of course, I’m blowing smoke here; I don’t know what I’m talking about. (No news there!)
I don’t know what I’m talking about either, but if China is getting all our manufacturing jobs, controls a big wad of our debt, and can knock our satellites out of the sky – there’s not much left to do but greet our new leaders.
The main reason I brought this up is because the Chinese have been building up their military recently and the “true believers” from the Mao days are not all gone. The new guys are much more realistic, but not exactly ideology free, and they have not gained control of the Peoples Army. They have been given a free ride by many people, but the world is much safer if there are systems in place to monitor what they are doing. They aren’t a threat to the US as much as a possible regional threat where they feel their “internal interests” are involved. They did this because the US hasn’t been paying attention, just like North Korea.
Andante, they need to be taken seriously, and that isn’t happening. For too long they have been viewed a source of cheap labor and products, rather than the world power that they are.
I agree with Bryan… but it seems difficult to find a way around this… They do have a great hold over us, economically and politically. We have little power over them. They know we’re not about to go after them militarily, almost regardless of what they do. their army is huge and they have nukes. We have a huge trade deficit with them… etc… However, I do think that, in some ways, we just need to watch it run its course. Yes, it’s a great old culture, and it’ll survive. However, for many years it has seemed to me (yes, very scientific) that their cultural stance since Mao have led to a culture whose values could lead to severe social unrest (given the ever increasing social divide there), environmental collapse given their practice with natural resources, etc… and they are already facing competition from other sources (Vietman, India, etc.). I actually think that if anybody can get Africa stabilized, there’s the next huge workforce and the Chinese would be done.
China has figured it out, CD, and is the number one foreign investor in African nations to secure rights to their resources. The Party is more interested in its survival, than the welfare of the Chinese people.