This is a question/topic that has been on my mind for some years now, and is seeming to be increasingly important given the economic and military strength China has been gaining lately.  Who can forget, also, that they have asserted in the past that Taiwan, a democracy, belongs to them?

http://news.yahoo.com/i/2973;_ylt=AjRSo_m.h6pMOrIK6UVc4KlZRbs8

Scroll down.

Also, while you're at the story, click on the story on the left side of the screen, "Who pays the price for cheap goods?" 

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Which begs the second question, could we.     China now has the greatest export output now, more than Germany!  They'll be killing us with brand new weapons WE paid for.

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I suppose that is the bigger question, SP, the military being spread so thin not to mention would it start/spark WWIII? 

 Well, officially start/spark WWIII, eh-hem; seems like some of us are all but physically fighting it right now!

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They could decide to take Taiwan, and then again they may not? I like what Christ said to Pontius Pilate when Pilate told Him that he has the power to take or save His life. Which ultimately boils down to what?

The real question is : do we have anything to defend Taiwan with? Our military is stretched to the breaking point now. We would have a real problem defending the USA, let along any other country. Our military is at a dangerous level for what is being asked of them yet as usual, Americas best gives their all !

RockyMtn1776 said: The real question is : do we have anything to defend Taiwan with? Our military is stretched to the breaking point now. We would have a real problem defending the USA, let along any other country. Our military is at a dangerous level for what is being asked of them yet as usual, Americas best gives their all !

 

Russia and China are kind of teaming up on this one.  I'm not sure it would really matter what we wanted or what we had.   China's got the people and getting the weapons and Russia has the weapons.  We really need to think this one out thoroughly.

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                   You are correct SP even had joint training exercises quite recently pertaining to a U.S. response to a Chinese attack on Taiwan. I would hope we would aid Taiwan ini some manner against the Chi-Com Chumps.

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We're supplying them with missiles I think but other than that helping Japan just in case.

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The U.S 7th fleet would be able to defend Taiwain if a military invasion were to occur, the Chinese Navy cannot  match our military might.  However, this is a rather simplistic view of things.  There are other issues that are far more likely to create a problem with the Chinese, and they are economic not military. The Chinese own over $1 trillion in U.S dollars/and dollar denominated assets (such as U.S treasuries).  A full scale sale or "dump" of the dollar by the Chinese would collapse this countries currency and economy immediately.  The Chinese also depend on Iran for the bulk of their oil, and have very limited oil reserves.  For all you warmongers that want to attack Iran keep this in mind.  An attack on Iran is a threat to the Chinese economy and they hold a "very strong" trump card in this.       

  

 

  

Bearclaw said:

The U.S 7th fleet would be able to defend Taiwain if a military invasion were to occur, the Chinese Navy cannot  match our military might.  However, this is a rather simplistic view of things.  There are other issues that are far more likely to create a problem with the Chinese, and they are economic not military. The Chinese own over $1 trillion in U.S dollars/and dollar denominated assets (such as U.S treasuries).  A full scale sale or "dump" of the dollar by the Chinese would collapse this countries currency and economy immediately.  The Chinese also depend on Iran for the bulk of their oil, and have very limited oil reserves.  For all you warmongers that want to attack Iran keep this in mind.  An attack on Iran is a threat to the Chinese economy and they hold a "very strong" trump card in this.       

  

 

Not wanting to be a war monger or anything that resembles one, but should China invade Taiwan and expect it to become part of China, that would be an act of war.   Not sure of what kind of oil reserves China possesses, but if indeed China depends solely on Iran they'd quickly be brought to a standstill without petroleum.  Of course if Russia is in bed with China, the Russians set on top of tremendous oil reserves that have yet to be tapped.  That's why we need to remain focused as a nation and totally defer to the Almighty and not act selfishly or unilaterally.  Tis a touchy situation, but God is in control. Are we still "One Nation Under God"?

China is now dealing with Canada with vast reserves of oil and Mexico with deep water ports in both and then there's Venezuela who would gladly give enemies of America oil.  And of course China has already threatened us with a dump of the dollar and going to the Euro along with Iran.  It's our oil reserves and shale and sands and coal we had best get started with I think.

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China Is a Significant Threat to the U.S.

Geoff Metcalf
Monday, June 6, 2005

"…extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!" – Barry Goldwater July 16, 1964

Communist Red China IS a for-real significant threat to our national security AND the world. 

  Since at least 1998 I have been writing, talking, itching and moaning about the China threat. I have interviewed a gaggle of experts (Bill Gertz, Steve Mosher, Chuck DeVore, Ken Timmerman, Timperlake and Triplett) and analyzed a huge compendium of documentation affirming that China has been, IS, and will continue to be a significant threat to our national security.

Google has 10,100,000 hits for "China Threat." "China Threat Books" will yield 3,140,000 google hits. I found 33 specific links on MY Web page (http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/cgi-bin/x... of past articles (and that doesn't include my ten-year-long rant on the radio).

NOW Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld finally has articulated the obvious. Washington Post headline: "Rumsfeld: China's Military Buildup a Threat" by MATT KELLEY, The Associated Press, Saturday, June 4, 2005, 2:16 a.m. … DUH!?!? It is about freaking time!

Rumsfeld has acknowledged, "China's military buildup … is a threat to Asian security." It took him long enough … but his glass is still only half full.

The Pentagon chief is kinda/sorta talking tough with a harder line against China from the Bush administration. Previously they have criticized Beijing over trade and human rights issues … but this is a first salvo in challenging its military buildup.

The Chicoms are angry. The director of the Asia bureau of China's foreign ministry, Cui Tiankai, said, "Do you truly believe that the U.S. is threatened by the emergence of China?" You damnbetcha!

Rumsfeld was half right and half wrong when he said he does not think any country threatens China (THAT is true), but when he said the United States does not see China as a threat, he is either being disingenuous or uncharacteristically myopic to say it poses no threat to the U.S.

China has repeatedly SAID it is a threat.

China has said it will attack Taiwan if Taiwan tries to declare independence.

Unchecked, within 15 years Communist China will control over 80 percent of the South China Sea.

By 2010 (five years from now) China will have a navy FIVE TIMES LARGER THAN OURS.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, China told the elder Bush there was now a new cold war … between China and the U.S.

In 1996 China's deputy chief of staff said, "… you are not going to threaten us again because, in the end, you care a lot more about Los Angeles than Taipei."

Chinese President Jiang Zemin told his central military commission it should "prepare for war with the United States by the year 2008."

China is a threat because IT HAS SAID SO! Not only has it said so, but also its plans, actions to implement the plan, and what it has done and not done, gives evidence to it as a threat.

An old Army buddy who attended the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, puts a fine point on the China threat. He reported in 1994 "war games" (which were played out in a 2010 environment) the U.S. Seventh Fleet getting crushed by China.

China IS a threat … a for-real, you damnbetcha threat. So, what are we doing about it? Don Marquis once observed, "Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday."

Former U.S. Secretary of the Navy James Webb noted, "Few in Asia missed the significance of China's recent warning that American naval vessels should not sail through the international waters of the Taiwan Strait, and the Clinton administration's compliance with that warning."

That was the same time that a Chinese military official threatened to lob a nuke at Los Angeles.

Rummy has pressed Beijing to use its influence with North Korea to restart six-nation talks over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. Good luck, pal!

It is not in China's strategic best interest to help us with North Korea. It could fix the problem in a New York second with a quick ‘Dutch Uncle' talk. North Korea survives because of China. Without Chicom support, North Korea would literally starve. China wants North Korea rattling sabers and mucking up the geopolitical landscape as a distraction.

China IS a very real threat. Rumsfeld and Bush would do well to acknowledge the obvious and lay the necessary groundwork (and spend the necessary billions) to mitigate the China threat … BEFORE the U.S. Seventh Fleet has to square off with China.

Aircraft Carrier Project

At present China has very little in the way of credible power-projection capabilities, though China can already project military forces superior to those that South-east Asian countries could deploy to the South China Sea. The PLA Navy has studied the acquisition of an aircraft carrier since the mid-1980s, and there are persistant reports that China has plans to launch a 40,000 ton class aircraft carrier by 2010, though these reports remain unsubstantiated and appear to based on woefully inadequate analysis and information.

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                 We are downsizing our Navy at an alarming rate. China is building or buying subs, cruisers, frigates, and destroyers left and right. I wouldn't be surprised if acquiring an aircraft carrier was in the works. They already have the world's largest army with 2.3 million soldiers. We complain when we lose 3,000. That's a drop in a very large bucket to them.

                  Their acquisition of the SS-N-22 "Sunburn" aka Russian P-270 "Moskit" with the fruits of our labor gives them a significant advantage over our Naval capabilities. The Sunburn is launched from deck mounted quad tubes. It has been adapted for submarine launch, air launch from the Sukhoi 27 and single surface launch from modified 40 foot flatbed trucks. It is an anti-ship supersonic missile with a cruising altitude of approx. 60 feet. It has a top speed of Mach 2.2 (1,520 mph) in less than 30 seconds. It has a 200 kiloton yield and cannot be detected  or logged by radar. Russia sold 100 Sunburns to China, who mounted them on corvettes and frigates near Taiwan. The Sunburn is quite capable of sinking a U.S. aircraft carrier.

                   In August/September of 2003, Chinese and Russian Navies conducted a "simulated sinking of an American carrier battle group. In this exercise the Chinese destroyer Fuzhoi fired a Sunburn with a practice warhead (cameras attached). It recorded the warhead  hitting the white cross on a target vehicle 60 nautical miles away. The terminal attack profile was Mach 2.05 at an altitude of 22 feet. The Chinese have moved a squadron of Sukhoi 27's  to Kashi airbase bordering Kyrgyzstan dangerously close to U.S. forces.

                       They have added the SS-N-25 "Onyx" . Where the Sunburn can fly 150 kilometers at an altitude of 60 feet at Mach 2.1, the Onyx has an extended range of 200+ kilometers at an average altitude of 45 feet at Mach 2.9 ( 2,100 mph). The Onyx is 100% Fire and Forget meaning that once clear of the launcher it is flight management automatic. The Onyx can sink a carrier using a conventional penetrating warhead, ie., 5,500 pounds of missile striking a carrier ata terminal velocity of 2,460 feet per second.

                        They are avery real threat that we should be taking gravely serious.

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Talking about in the air they can now shoot down satellites and 60 per cent of our shots in Iraq are satellite driven.  Knock out a few of our defense satellites and we're totally blind.  We are now in the process of trying to find out why they are putting up satellites so close to ours.  Bad enough we're enemies but why are we financing them also?

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