Are we on the early stages of World War 3. (Poll)

[Bofferbrauer2]

LegitHyperbole said:

I just wanna address two things here, the rest I'm not knowledgeable enough to talk on. You said the US has more military budget than China but we don't know China's true spending, it's all calculated from what can be seen as them spending but even those calculations are pretty high, half a trillion so half the US budget. They have much shrouded in secret, their Nuclear weapons programme for one and it wouldn't surprise me should they keep a lot of other R&D secret too.

Second thing, China has so many more fighting age men it's unbelievable. Even if there was a draft in the US they'd still have so, so many more. Not to mention so many US men will fail bootcamp for many reasons. If China wants to invade, they don't need military equipment, they need able bodied men and they have a lot of them and a lot tougher too than the US where so many are over weight. 

And how would they cross the ocean? The US has about 60% of all military vessels in the world by displacement, they could shut down the seas in an instant if they ever wanted to. Sure, China has 3 times as many ships... but half of them are coast guard patrol boats and the biggest chunk of the rest are small corvettes. Also, many of their bigger ships are getting old and outdated and simply cant keep up with the US Navy in any shape or form.

Besides, it's true that China has many more inhabitants... but they also have a shrinking and rapidly aging population, with their working age population shrinking more and more thanks to the one-child-policy and it's after-effects. China can ill afford sending it's able-bodied men and women into a conflict that will for sure end in the losses of countless Chinese if their population is already shrinking.

But the biggest Problem would simply be basic economics: Unlike Russia for instance, China has not only geared it's economy towards exports, but even doubled down on it twice when it would have been better to boost consumerism by raising wages in the country. Any war would totally crash their export-driven economy since there wouldn't be many left to export - especially not the rich western countries they rely heavily upon to keep their economy afloat, something that seems to become harder and harder now.

Last edited by Bofferbrauer2 - on 23 September 2024