U.S Military encirclement of China

The problem is that the Republicans are not very smart.

The democraps were able to force Trump to reverse his stated policy of good relations with Russia by goading him into proving he was not putins tool... putins puppet...

Essentially they got him to do the opposite of what he wanted to do, what he stated he wanted to do and to do exactly what they were going to try to do if they got into power.

The result was Trump was an orange hillary but more willing to build walls and tear up agreements with everyone.

The real question will be can the republicans goad Biden into going hardline against China...

The irony is that Russia has a growing stable economy but it is no threat to the west in terms of economics.

In terms of military power Russia is and remains the biggest threat to the west and if Russia acted like the west does then the west would certainly be in trouble... but Russia acts with respect and integrity and mainly in self defence so really only a threat to a country wanting to invade Russia or break her up... so obviously the west is afraid because that is exactly what they want.

China on the other hand is more of a production superpower and a real economic threat to the west, though still rather weak in military terms... but threats of interference from the west is making them look to become more independent and resilient and part of that is boosting military spending in various areas.

Trump has spent his term forcing Europe and the US to push Russia away and to an extent China too... Russia got the message... but China is too invested in the west to just give up that easily... which is not to say they wont turn their back on the west completely... certainly they have invested enormous energy and money and time to new trade routes to get their goods to Europe and vice versa...

If they keep printing money the way they are... who is going to keep accepting it as a real currency?

These shmexperts do not understand that PPP is required for any fair comparison. Bloated MIC prices are not universal physical
constants. America's huge military budget reflects internal rot and basically nothing else. Russia is clearly fielding a military and
military tech that can neutralize any US attack on Russia.

All the chest thumping drivel from these morons and somehow the total absence of hypersonic weapons in the US arsenal is a
non issue. They don't even have supersonic anti-ship missiles and are still riding 1970s ICBMs with zero innovation in anti-ABM
aspects.

America is really the poster child for "if your only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail". It is so used to its
colonial enforcement racket that it thinks every country is a 3rd world pushover.

Meanwhile billions of dollars are spent on these missiles as if the equipment and the missiles are all being routinely
improved and renewed.   This is pure corruption and the riding of the "Soviet legacy" (i.e. using ancient equipment
built in a better time) American style.  

The thing is that if you don't spend any money on such things in the span of 50 years, then all the professionals
that built them are long gone.   You can't just put out an ad in the paper and get replacements.   A lot of these
high tech, specialized jobs need unique on the job training to pass the skills and knowledge which is never documented.
But the rotten deciders in high office pretend that every job is a burger flipping job and the "market will provide".

The next five years they have to negotiate a replacement for New START and they might end up realising China wont join and the UK and France wont join because China doesn't want to and Russia can't and wont make them, and UK and France wont join either and all their new hypersonic ABM evading weapons means Russia will feel just fine about the US leaving the treaty eventually because they will feel no matter what the US does they will have MAD without having to spend enormous money.

In fact with Breeder reactors they can rapidly build up a nuclear warhead arsenal anyway... most like IRBM and IRCM weapons to deal with UK and France.

The US Japan relationship is not going to remain the same.

As the US gets weaker and more desperate Japan is going to become more assertive... and Australia and South Korea are not going to like that much.

I rather suspect the US thinks they can trick Taiwan into starting a war with China which they can sit back and allow Japan and South Korea and Australia to fight against China... trying to pretend not to get involved.... it is just more of the same from the US... Ukraine and Georgia and Belarus for Russia and Pakistan and China for India and Taiwan and India for China...

Sorry, but Japan's Birth rate is such a joke that by the time America's truly gone, Japanese assertiveness would amount to nothing.

Dude... what is your focus on birth rates... I really don't think it is healthy...

Just about as much nuance needed to get the rationale of a US paper giving centre spread space to Chinese ambasaador while PLA mounts assaults on US borders.

China got Biden elected and America does not care... very selective in deciding what is interference and what is not...

The rule of thumb seems to be if we do it or we approve of the outcome it is democracy and if Russia does it it is bad and sanctions must be imposed.

Taiwan will not start a war with China no matter how much we encourage them

They don't need to start a war... just convince them the only way they will be safe is if they declare independence like Kosovo did and you have the might of the US military protecting you...

You know... like Georgia and the Ukraine did.

Ditto for Georgia, Armenia and Belarus who never had the capability to invade Russia even with U.S support.

It was Georgia and the Ukraine that murdered people they claimed were their own citizens that got Russia involved in those conflicts.

Armenia has no interests in attacking Russia... Russia is their best friend, though their current government seems to think otherwise, though mainly through their own actions.

And Belarus has not be colour revolutioned yet so it is a bit premature talking about them being traitors...

OTOH a joint China-Pak invasion will confine India to the thrash cans of history.

I don't think so... such an attack would fully justify nuclear weapon use and I rather suspect the Indias could easily wipe out Pakistan quickly enough to make China realise its enormous population makes it very vulnerable to nuclear warfare... a quick scan of the list of production centres and the most prosperous cities in China could be used as a target list and China has not gotten its ballistic missile early warning system from Russia installed yet so they would essentially be largely blind.

But China supplies weapons to Pakistan but does not go to war with them... there were no Chinese nationals involved in 11/9...