On some level I agree with the sentiment that China’s military power aspirations seem to be primarily regional with soft power as we zoom out I would argue for “Don’t listen what leaders say, watch what they do”.
You don’t build giant landing craft unless you consider a marine landing warfare scenario as credible. You don’t build aircraft carriers unless you care about power projection. You don’t need ballistic missiles unless your enemies are far away. All of these things cost money you could otherwise spend on keeping your citizens happy.
There are a lot of verifiable and expensive signals about China’s power posture transitioning towards a more expeditionary one. Now, they might end up carrying the big stick and speaking softly, which is better for everyone – even if the PRC ends up getting their way – but that just means the hard power lever was used in a different way.
I get what you’re saying, and don’t get me wrong, I’m no tankie - I don’t have any interest in defending China. But, to be fair, in this world, especially with the US breathing down their necks, I feel like it would be irresponsible not to ensure that they’re prepared for a war with the US Empire, who would most likely use the islands around China as bases to launch attacks. Amphibious landings would also be needed in those cases.
I genuinely believe they don’t want to invade Taiwan. They’ve had many opportunities to do so. They allied with the KMT against the Japanese Empire before. China is quite a nationalist country, it seems quite self-evident to me that they would prefer to not kill Chinese people whenever it is an option.
On some level I agree with the sentiment that China’s military power aspirations seem to be primarily regional with soft power as we zoom out I would argue for “Don’t listen what leaders say, watch what they do”.
You don’t build giant landing craft unless you consider a marine landing warfare scenario as credible. You don’t build aircraft carriers unless you care about power projection. You don’t need ballistic missiles unless your enemies are far away. All of these things cost money you could otherwise spend on keeping your citizens happy.
There are a lot of verifiable and expensive signals about China’s power posture transitioning towards a more expeditionary one. Now, they might end up carrying the big stick and speaking softly, which is better for everyone – even if the PRC ends up getting their way – but that just means the hard power lever was used in a different way.
I get what you’re saying, and don’t get me wrong, I’m no tankie - I don’t have any interest in defending China. But, to be fair, in this world, especially with the US breathing down their necks, I feel like it would be irresponsible not to ensure that they’re prepared for a war with the US Empire, who would most likely use the islands around China as bases to launch attacks. Amphibious landings would also be needed in those cases.
I genuinely believe they don’t want to invade Taiwan. They’ve had many opportunities to do so. They allied with the KMT against the Japanese Empire before. China is quite a nationalist country, it seems quite self-evident to me that they would prefer to not kill Chinese people whenever it is an option.