NEWS If War Comes, Will the U.S. Navy Be Prepared?

[Griz882]

This has been the thinking of the global community for the past few decades, i.e. bring China into the world economy, trade with them, and it will lead to increased prosperity for the people who will then demand more freedom and China will liberalize and hopefully become democratic.

But thus far it hasn't happened. Instead, the very opposite has happened where we have only seen China become more authoritarian. Now maybe that is a short-term aberration and longer-term, we'll see it reverse. But that could be multiple decades for all we know. For the time being, what we have done is to seriously strengthen economically and militarily a very sizable threat.

You must be a young guy. Tell me, and I know this is an opinion question, who will replace Xi and who will select that person?

 

[nodropinufaka]

You are not imaging how a global economy works. This very day nations and corporations across the globe are turning away from China’s manufacturing base but not their business…and I have offered evidence of that. China is, and will always remain, a critical part of a functioning global economy, but it will not and never has been the be all and end all of that system.

As to boycotts…why? Corporations don’t boycott, individuals and governments do.

I think you are working too hard to militarize an economic issue. No one wants to “destroy” China they want China to be an equal partner in the system…and that is where it will end up.

I think we may be talking past each other or agree to an extent. I’ve been in the camp that the PRC won’t risk ruining their economy or trade for military action.

They may try to influence through loaning money but they don’t want a way because the population likely doesn’t want to end losing what they worked for.

 

[nodropinufaka]

This is also interesting regarding PRC diplomacy and bilateral engagements directly with them.

U.S.-China Joint Statement Addressing the Climate Crisis - United States Department of State

U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and China Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua met in Shanghai to discuss aspects of the climate crisis. Read their joint statement.

www.state.gov

 

[Random8145]

You must be a young guy. Tell me, and I know this is an opinion question, who will replace Xi and who will select that person?

No idea---I think Xi will seek to have a selected replacement, or it will lead to a power struggle. But whether China stays with the dictator model or reverts back to being more how the Soviet Union was led (post-Stalin), it will still be a sizable threat.

 

[DanMa1156]

Our own country is too soft on them (minus Trump) let alone the rest of the world.

What has the Biden admin done differently? The military posture certainly hasn't become more relaxed and the tariffs remain in place. He's also personally met with Japanese PM Suga and all but convinced him and his government to defend Taiwan (Japan's latest posture review just stated it and their deputy PM has stated it publicly, much to this dismay of the Chinese).

 

[Random8145]

What has the Biden admin done differently? The military posture certainly hasn't become more relaxed and the tariffs remain in place. He's also personally met with Japanese PM Suga and all but convinced him and his government to defend Taiwan (Japan's latest posture review just stated it and their deputy PM has stated it publicly, much to this dismay of the Chinese).

Biden I will give credit to if he is keeping the tariffs in place and being hard on the Chinese, but the rest of the political class has been, at least until Trump came along, far too soft on them.

 

[DanMa1156]

Biden I will give credit to if he is keeping the tariffs in place and being hard on the Chinese, but the rest of the political class has been, at least until Trump came along, far too soft on them.

I think largely because there has been a change of perspective and thinking. Pre middle 2010s, I think it was a reasonable thought that China will eventually "play by the rules." We've seen it happen with other countries in the past.

 

[Notanaviator]

U.S. and allies accuse China of global hacking spree

The United States and its allies accused China on Monday of a global cyberespionage campaign, mustering an unusually broad coalition of countries for an initiative angrily rejected by Beijing.

www.reuters.com

Timely, to the points above. With the caveat that with some of these partners, a strongly worded statement is a lot easier than coordinating/encouraging action, the fact that we’re rolling this out with a coalition of larger players on board at least may send a more compelling message that the US is reassuming its role as quarterback of the free world.

 

[Pags]

History tells us that no one is ready when war comes.

 

[number9]

WSJ published a letter this morning from former SECNAV Lehman. Not much to see, though he did specifically call out the zero-defect culture.

 

[nodropinufaka]

U.S. and allies accuse China of global hacking spree

The United States and its allies accused China on Monday of a global cyberespionage campaign, mustering an unusually broad coalition of countries for an initiative angrily rejected by Beijing.

www.reuters.com

Timely, to the points above. With the caveat that with some of these partners, a strongly worded statement is a lot easier than coordinating/encouraging action, the fact that we’re rolling this out with a coalition of larger players on board at least may send a more compelling message that the US is reassuming its role as quarterback of the free world.

In this situation- wondering what action could be taken?

 

[Jim123]

In this situation- wondering what action could be taken?

 

[nittany03]

WSJ published a letter this morning from former SECNAV Lehman. Not much to see, though he did specifically call out the zero-defect culture.

The whole “no one lives on base anymore” part was a bit “old man yells at cloud.” Let’s see, you can get a place right away out in town or wait months for base housing while reading articles about what a mold-infested mess the management companies are turning them into. And “the clubs are dying” has been a thing for at least a decade, if not almost 20 years.

 

[Griz882]

Having spent time on this thread I have decided to stop buying Chinese products.

Not sure what I’ll do about my unwearied effort problem, HOWEVER as a patriot I’ll have to figure it out.

 

[Brett327]

The whole “no one lives on base anymore” part was a bit “old man yells at cloud.” Let’s see, you can get a place right away out in town or wait months for base housing while reading articles about what a mold-infested mess the management companies are turning them into. And “the clubs are dying” has been a thing for at least a decade, if not almost 20 years.

Hard to tell what parts of that piece was Lehman. While I respect him a lot, the piece paints a picture of an author that is pretty severely out of touch with reality. As Nittany mentions, nobody wants to live on base because living on base is lame... not because of some fundamental breakdown in service culture. Even bringing up DUIs in the "zero-defect" conversation is absurd - as though we're advocating leniency for the commission of other misdemeanor crimes for our service members? We're better than that. Finally, the lamentation over "up or out" needs to be shouldered by Congress, not individual services. Pretty sure that was the law of the land when Lehman was in office. If it was so onerous, why didn't he fix it in the 80s?

Not to paint a too rosy picture of what the people in our service face these days, as there are certainly some serious concerns and issues that remain to address, but this piece misses the mark on nearly every point.