Is a war between the U. S. and China inevitable in the future?

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

[Anonymous]

We are already at war. The US is an Empire in the style of the old Roman Empire. The Chinese have tzun zu the art of war but the US follows closely Epitoma Rei Militaris (Epitome of Military Science) by Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus.

"If you want peace prepare for war"

There's a great quote about Roman war doctrine that I can't remember or find and it basically state that war begins before its declared, before a single soldier sees a battlefield and you undermine their economy, weaken their trade, weaken their alliances, have others fight them, build alliances against them, undermine their government, cause civil unrest, famine, disease etc until they are weak and divided enough. Your own soldiers might never see a battlefield. This is how the Romans waged war. This is what is happening with Russia and with China.

We did the same to Japan, WW2 didn't start for the US with Pearl Harbour. We were already attacking the Japanese undermining their economy and resources, with Germany we had been supplying war materials to their enemies.

In the cold war we were fighting many wars and battles by proxy, we had a few loses especiallyin the early days, we divided Russia and china, we sowed discord in the soviet union, we bled them in Afghanistan, finally we broke the soviet union economically by 1990.

[NamerOfStars]

Absent some major changes in geopolitics, yes. Sadly, while it perhaps COULD have been avoided ten years ago, Jinping knows that China's passed its peak and has begun its slow decline as a world power- but while a smarter man would seek to capitalize on the advantages it does have to improve things when it moves into being just another world power (and to a surprising extent, they kind of HAVE), Communists (and "Communists" like the Chinese government) seem allergic to that kind of thinking. He's just crazy enough to try to do something like seizing Taiwan.

The absolutely ASININE decision to sacrifice Hong Kong in the name of Covid paranoia just demonstrated that US resolve is weak, and that's the kind of decision that gets people killed. With a dictator in Beijing and a would-be dictator in Washington, I do NOT like our odds.

[WindAtMyBack]

Nope. I think it's extremely unlikely. It's too costly for either side to start a war. I lived through the cold war most of my life. I was never concerned about a war with the Soviet Union for the same reasons. It never made any sense to do it. I think a war with China is even less likely.

[Avicenna]

if the defense contractors want one over Taiwan, they‘ll get it and they won’t care if we lose (which we almost certainly would). But that’s not the endgame for the CCP- it’s world domination. And they’d love to get their hands on a depopulated North America with its agricultural lands and natural resources and send settlers.

[Texaskid1]

I don't see it a a reality.

I think the US is just huffing and puffing. The people in power know that we can not win any major conventional what against China or Russia. Although I think that many of my fellow Americans are more naïve than I am. I suspect that it may be due to the US picking fights with weaker , smaller countries that don't have our resources or manpower.

[Exterminatore]

Why do you think the US could never win a conventional war against Russia? A bunch of semi ill equipped farmers just ground their offensive to a halt. Russia is a paper Tiger.

China however is a very worthy adversary. They have a million man army. That would be a knock down drag our fight to the last man standing and we might not come out on top in it.

[Texaskid1]

@Exterminatore Russia could wipe out the Ukraine in a few seeks if they wanted to. They have been going easy on the Ukrainians.

This is not to say Russia has not made mistakes - they have. But they are still at it after almost a year. The American style of war is to swoop in and kill every man women and child there is and turn the country into a pile of rubble. The Russians have a very different strategy. Putin wants to capture the Ukraine intact , not levy it to the ground the way the US did to Iraq. Perhaps we should call the White House and tell old Joe to swoop on in there and conquer Russia - you know - just like in the movies. I am sure that we would win in a week or so , right? ( I mean just look at Vietnam, Korea, Gulf War ! and II , and Vietnam. Did we not underestimate our enemies? Yet we lost the Vietnam war and what the hell did we do in 20 years in Afghanistan? )

[Exterminatore]

I have to respectfully disagree with your assessment here.

With Iraq or Afghanistan we did not turn everything to rubble. That would not win the hearts and minds of the native population, but would rather in-biter them and cause them to actively fight against us. We were there only to exterminate and capture terrorists, and to remove Hussein from power.

However, Russia’s objectives in the Ukraine are different from ours in Iraq or Afghanistan. Their objectives are conquest. In such a case leaving as much infrastructure in tact as absolutely possible is required. You level it, you have to build it again, and you greatly impede your armies progress because you kill the logistics. Need roads to move armies. Need buildings to serve as headquarters and hospitals as you advance etc.

They are failing because they are not taking the land, holding it, then advancing and holding that land and so on and so forth until they are victorious. Instead their getting smashed to pieces. That’s because the Ukrainian’s are mounting solid and fierce resistance. Granted that is with an abundance of military aid, but none the less Russia is not able to advance and hold ground. In fact their getting pushed back and the Ukrainians have even successfully used missiles to attack inside of Russia, meaning they have even made ground in mounting a very slight offense.

What is the sum of all this? That Russia is a paper tiger. They’re getting beat up by a very unskilled and under equipped military.

[Exterminatore]

In Vietnam the objective was different than both the war on terror and the war in the Ukraine.

It was a policing action. The objective was to stop the spread of communism into Vietnam while allowing South Vietnam to build up enough to keep the commies out. It failed because the south Vietnamese weren’t really willing to fight much and several of them flipped from side to side often. Not to mention the corruption in South Vietnams government. So, after time we cut our losses and left.

Korea was a success and the war has not ended. It’s only a cease fire and has been since 1953. We pushed the commies back to the 53rd parallel (I might be mistaken on the parallel number) and left it as is creating a divided Korea. This was because Truman did not want to essentially have WW3 or at the least a very lengthy and costly war. Korea kicked off in 51’ I believe. Just 6 years after WW2, the deadliest war in human history. So, we contained the commies to the North and everything is still in a cease fire, and we were successful in pushing them back and if Truman gave the thumbs up, we very likely could have taken all of Korea. But China backed N. Korea and we did in fact have major engagements against the Chinese and were successful as far as we got. We could have kept going but it definitely would have meant a brutal and protracted war against China to do so. It would have been a knock down, drag down fight that would have cost many millions of lives on both sides and would have very substantially weakened and stretched thin our military, leaving our county quite vulnerable to the Russians at that time. Not a chance could we have fought both by ourselves and won, so it likely would have involved all the NATO nations and very likely would have resulted in WW3. Not to mention, by the end of WW2 our country was pretty much the only modernized country left with a navy and in tact infrastructure. The rest of Europe was decimated economically, militarily, and in infrastructure.

[KrakenAttackin]

China has been making heavy moves in the South China Sea in the last few years and there is nothing to stop them. I think the balloon incident affirms that the U. S. will not honor treaty commitments.

[Exterminatore]

I think so unfortunately. They just violated international law and as far as I can see their weather ballon stunt was an act of war.

[CaptainSmartass]

Hopefully not, but we'll have to wait and see what happens now 99 Spy Balloons got shot down.

Simples...

[Pterodon]

It will happen with a democrat in the White House

[Jamie05rhs]

What the hell? This picture is really provocative. You're not helping, man.

[Cubus]

Not really. China has a very big depopulation problem and they would become weaker and weaker

[WhiteBoyChill]

I mean if China invades its neighbors, there will be heavy sanctions on them. So I don't know if they really want to do that

[Anonymous]

China fights economically not through war. They are too smart and know they will lose.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think so.. they want money and vacations only.

[AviatorTom]

It's not inevitable, but it might happen.

[OddBeMe]

I think we need each other too much.

[Avicenna]

Exactly why does the US need a corrupt dictatorship which has massive human rights abuses, including slave labor which has been ripping us off for decades?

[OddBeMe]

@Avicenna (sign) because we love cheap labor. It’s our secret we refuse to admit. That we don’t want to pay $300 for clothes made here by Americans…instead we want outlet store prices of clothes made in sweat shops.

[msc545]

Hopefully not.

[QuietRunner]

yes in 2027or 2029..

[exitseven]

sadly yes.