US war with China?

We should. An Economic Ultimatum would do the trick nicely here. Trade restrictions would bring them to there knees... and they are far too mature (not to mention overmatched) to ever consider using their WMD's on us. I'd love to see it happen if; we steeled our resolve to not let them back in the loop until they've proven that they understand human rights. Do we actually agree on this?

A billion people
It's obvious to me that the leaders in China have little value attached to their people. A war with them wouldn't bother them at all. They may even welcome one to reduce their population. I don't think that the US could win though. It would mean Nuclear Winter. China may not hesitate to nuke the West Coast.

The showdown with Taiwan is a bluff in my view but I have been wrong before... a couple of times... maybe..

hmmmmmmm.....

Re: A billion people
I agree that they don't care for there people, but Nukes are out. They would be lucky to get a few shots off in exchange for total annihilation. They are way too smart for that. If, and it's a big IF, they actually believed we would cut off trade with them; they would have no choice but to listen. Opposing us economically or Militarily, they'd suffer 100 times worse than we would.

OK
Military war is unthinkable, I hope.

Economic war is possible but the Multi-Natls. would scream, cry and stomp their feet. I feel that the US should clamp down on China hard re: China's cheating re: currency and the imbalance of trade. The re-location of mfg. and outsourcing must be tempered with the program Kerry is starting to outline.

You can go to http://www.johnkerry.com to read that..

An interesting side effect to barring trade with nations with substandard human rights policies; Job creation in this country would go through the roof like never before!... The downside might be the collapse the economies of much of the world and the resultant terrorism might be unprecedented.

I say we should stay out of any war that involves China! They stay out of our wars so we should stay out of theirs. That's all we need is to pick a fight with a billion chinese people! We can support Taiwan diplomatically and maybe with sanctions but not with military force. That would be the biggest mistake this country could ever make.

None of the democratic nations of the world will back Taiwan's democratically elected government over China's communist one. For the simple reason that there's too much money to be made from the billion plus prospective customers in China. They don't care about human rights, only profits.

Yes but this would involve B<Expletive Deleted>h using diplomacy. As we all know he is poor in this area.

Holy crap... a war with China would seriously mean the beginning of the end of civilization.

China is probably the only other country that actually has any chance of defeating us. Missles would fall like rain all over the friggin place... not to mention the nukes, if the situation ever got desperate enough.

Lets hope everyone involved is smart enough to realize the havoc that would result.

Not Gonna Happen
A comprehensive information base on today's China and beyond...


Total Army Members 2.5 million (Source: TIME Feb. 1, 1999)

Budget of National Defense in 2000: 120.5 billion yuan RMB (about 14.5 billion US$) a 12.7% increase over the year of 1999) (Source: NPC news release, Mar. 2000)

Budget of National Defense (Unit: billion yuan RMB/billion yuan US$, and the exchange rate between USD and RMB is about 1 :8.3)

General Information about PLA http://www.china-military.org

Do your homework on China and you will learn that they are NOT a member of the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) club. They are by far the most dangerous potential enemy other than US and Russia, but run a very very distant third. The deterrent is in the fact that they would probably get a few Nuclear ICBMs here and could certainly hit our allies. Missiles would not "fall like rain" here. Conversely; we could vaporize every living creature in China in our first strike. The Chinese know this so I don't believe there is any chance of it happening. We would suffer, but they would disappear. 20 years from now perhaps; they will be a worthy opponent in an all out fight, but not now.

The US will likely suffer an Atomic attack at some point in the not so distant future... But it won't come from Russia or China. And, hopefully, it will not be the Mega-ton hydrogen variety found in our arsenal. This is the reason I wholeheartedly support pre-emptive strikes on the ruthless despots of the world. The United States is, and hopefully will remain, the only true superpower that has ever been on maximum alert. An all out exchange with Russia is the only true nuclear doomsday scenario. I'm all for taking steps to keep it that way.

China spent an estimated $55.91 Billion on defense in 2002. We spent more than a quarter of a trillion annually before the "war on terror" even began.
Source: CIA World Fact Book

Nuclear Weapons: Who Has What

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HISTORY OF NUCLEAR WARHEAD STOCKPILES -- 1995
NOTE: Totals are estimates. Lists include strategic and non-strategic warheads, as well as warheads awaiting dismantling

1995
UNITED STATES- 14,766
SOVIET UNION- 27,000
BRITAIN- 300
FRANCE- 485
CHINA- 425
Source: National Resources Defense Council
Source

Keep in mind; the Russian Weapons count includes badly outdated models, many of which have been dismantled (some even at our expense).

Defense or Offense
If the US spent 30% less on destruction and put that 30% into construction, expecially in the ME, specifically into Palastine, perhaps some of the problems that are currently swooping down on the USA would be lessened?

That won't happen because the Military Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned us about is a dominating force in the power structure of the US Plutocracy. Prove this wrong!!!

Does Iraq count? If they spend that 30% on construction there; will that get an approval from you?

So far we've approved the expenditures of $166 billion between the invasion and the rebuilding. The Whitehouse estimates $55 billion to rebuild. The UN estimates kicking in a cool Billion, which leaves the balance of $54 Billion for us to pay. That's a little over 30% of the total cost. :wink:

Construction
I feel that the Iraqis should be given the contracts that they are qualified for and the bidding for projects that Iraqis are not capable of should be open to all countries.

Of course I favor actual rebuilding of Iraq.