Originally Posted by
GoldenGooseGuy
As China'a economic power grows, it will claim more assets in the South China Sea because naval power has always been a prerequisite for the next world empire.
China’s history is remarkable in the fact that unlike it’s western counterparts it really never has had much of a desire to be a world empire. I remember lots of UK, Spanish, Portugese, French and Dutch ships sailing around the world to plant their flags in new lands, not really the Chinese. Their tendency to invade and conquer other nations hasn’t been really evident since the Qin Dynasty, about 2000 years ago. Since then they’ve really only fought border conflicts with neighbouring states, not far flung expeditionary conquests launched towards the other side of the world. The plan to build the infrastructure on the Belt and Road initiative isn’t a 5 year plan, it’s a 2200 year plan in reality. Just an upgrade to the trade routes of Eurasia that have existed throughout most of recorded history.
I think they looked at overstretched empires like the Romans or the current day Americans, and easily saw the folly of attempted military control of the known world. Their goal is economic, manufacturing, monetary, innovation and trade domination, not empirical or military domination. I think what really stuffed the US up was their disastrous serious of wars in the Middle East post 2001. Not only did they kill and devastate millions, not only did they destabilise and upend an entire region with worldwide ramification, what they also did was show the Chinese government the lunacy of a national doctrine to establish security via military supremacy, which only really has gained debt, bloodshed, loss of influence and loss of respect for the US whilst not achieving any of their original goals. Whilst the Chinese GDP has almost tripled since the Iraq War 2003 they were smart enough to not make the same mistake of launching similar wars themselves as they’ve grown, which is quite telling in how their mindset works. In fact after the loss of 4000 US soldiers in Iraq who became Iraq’s largest trading partner without firing a shot? Wars of conquest are so 20th century.
Chinese memories go back a long way before 1949. It’s no surprise the topic of the Opium Wars have been mentioned In the US-China trade negotiations, probably followed by US officials scrambling for their phones to find out what the hell that was all about. China’s plan to populate and develop the Spratleys and Paracels has more to do with avoiding a repeat of 1842 than as a springboard to launch imperialistic wars of conquest of far flung foreign lands.