Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[Bofferbrauer2]

Jumpin said:

Either interesting or scary times.
Under Xi Jinping, the nuclear stockpile remained relatively stable at around 300 until 2023. They have since then doubled it to an estimated 600, and Western intelligence has no idea why.

I'm posing it here, because Russia's coffers are emptying and the country could crumble in the foreseeable future. China is also reportedly increasing espionage in Russia. If Russia collapses, China could gobble up the territory with a nuclear deterrence against the West, and there wouldn't be much we could do. But, my guess is China would wish to stay amicable with trade partners if this is the case. How could they do that? Marketing it as a way to quickly stabilize an incredibly dangerous situation - imagine all these Russian breakaway republics with nukes, but (unlike the collapse of the USSR) in huge disarray.

Of course, this is just speculation on my part for a time that could be as much as 15 years away, and circumstances may change.

China could potentially make a case for some territory that China had ceded to Russia in the 19th century. As for which territory, this video quickly explains everything:

I mean, even Mao Zedong tried to get those lands back (it's one of the reasons for the Sino-Soviet split), this could be a golden opportunity for Xi Jinping to actually get them back for China.