Geo politics are not my strong suit, not by any measure, but hearing snippets of how terribly China is currently doing, I can't help but feel what we're seeing is them presenting strength when actually weak, as told by Sun Tzu, driven by desperation and internal turmoil.
In short:
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Their economy is also suffering, same as everyone else, and considering how they're the world's manufacturing center, why wouldn't it be?
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You're a fool to think they've locked down Covid to the degree they claim. I guarantee it's ravaging their populace the same as if not worse than anyone else, and they're lying about it, and having their puppets across the globe lie for them.
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I remember something about a famine, coupled with the absolute shit quality of their farm land - a holdover from the days of Mao and his dumbass policies on farming.
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Also, problems with meeting electricity demand, largely because they're trying to play big dick and refuse themselves the Australian coal they so desperately need under the banner of trade sanctions.
Anyone with a better grasp of the situation at hand want to confirm or refute these points? I'm guessing it'll only take a stiff breeze in their direction to cause them to collapse if things are as bad as they could be.
Because outside of /pol, people understand that China with its vast army, population, nuclear arsenal, totalitarian government and greater wealth than all the Jewish billionaires put together, is a serious fucking problem.
china's army is larp-tier running equipment half a century old. theres a reason they haven't taken back taiwan: they realistically couldn't. that and Chinese wealth is mostly based on trade with the west (that they give up the second the war starts).
there's a reason China sticks with posturing and espionage. without it, they wouldn't be taken as seriously.
They still have a shit ton of warm bodies to throw at any enemy, but you are right that their primary weapon is espionage for the moment. They are still looking to modernise wherever they can (their navy for example).
Alas, the Chinese are very good at espionage. I suppose it's the whole "subdue your enemy without fighting" taken to its logical conclusion.
Not helped by the fact that a lot of the western world absolutely refuses to acknowledge that this happens, and calls anyone who does a racist. China is brazenly acting in China's best interests, but in the western world, it's considered borderline far-right nazi-ism to put the interests of your own nation first, and the result is a cold war where only one side is even showing up.
the chinese are darloks
That espionage could be our undoing. Think of everything made in China, you don’t think there are microchips inserted into most if not all electronics that give the Chinese a backdoor? There is evidence of such things being discovered.
China is definitely a major competitor to us on the world stage, but when I can't get electric and water service because I voted for Trump, it's going to be at the behest of the US government and not the Chinese.