nuclear-news

China militarising – like everyone else

Why we’re all up in arms over China, Sydney Morning Herald, John Birmingham , February 8, 2011 Governments around the Pacific are preparing for war with China. Not next week. Or next year. Or even any time this decade. But the slow, horrible train wreck of billions of human beings doggedly digging themselves into entrenched and hostile positions is well underway. We’re deep into this hole now.
Most of those billions of people, of course, have no real idea of what’s happening. A news article here. A strategic report there. The occasional YouTube video everywhere, such as the grainy footage of China’s J-20 stealth fighter going viral couple of weeks ago.
…………behind closed doors, they are all terrified of China. Not just wary, or suspicious, or hedging their bets against the peaceful rise the world’s most powerful totalitarian state. But existentially terrified.

China haunts the nightmares of admirals and generals, prime ministers and presidents, from the eastern edge of the Indian Ocean to the surf breaks of Malibu.

Why? Well, beyond the obvious answer that nobody likes the idea of having to deal with a new, difficult and potentially hostile peer competitor, the Chinese are doing exactly as we are. They are arming themselves. Not simply replacing the antiquated Cold War crap that still equips most of the PLA, but actively developing a force structure and weapons technology to engage and destroy the military forces of the US and its allies; anti-satellite weapons to rake our eyes out of space, infiltrator malware to crack open and degrade the data links on which modern militaries are becoming entirely dependent, missile swarms to overwhelm the defences of carrier battle groups, and long-range nuclear weapons to threaten the population centers of potential adversaries……

Why we’re all up in arms over China

February 8, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | China, weapons and war