The difference is that what Mao did was creating a strict regime. If you look at China's history then you see when the normal people get angry they riot and a new "dynasty" takes over. It's fascinating stuff really. It's almost like a pattern for China. Of course there's also the possibility that China changes gradually over time like the UK did without any bloody riots. 

And Mao has killed a lot of people directly as well.

And I said I find it disgusting that they admire Mao. If everyone in China knew the truth then I wouldn't find it disgusting. Then all those deaths would have at least meant something, now it feels like they died in vein.

Wouldn't you find it disgusting if most people in Germany admired Hitler?(which they don't, I'm just giving an example)

Dude I have no idea what you're talking about. I was replying to Lostplanet22's post about you where he said

"You find Mao zedong disgusting still you would find it funny to see a massacre...It is hard to find a difference between you and Mao zedong at this point."

I was basically saying how him saying you and Mao are similar was a bit silly. Unless of course, you've killed millions of people.

Ooh, I see. I explained my self poorly anyway in that first post, so I don't mind :P.

Would you all kindly go back to the previous topic of discussion. Democratic countries warring with each other.

...and two cookies for the person who states what game I just referenced. :D

Hmm, Bioshock?

Anyway democrocies are less inclined to have war with other democrocies, but never is a big word. Too big in this case. So, I can't really agree with your professor.

Like I said, one could call communism to be a form of democracy and look what happened at the cold war. Or just look at the Polish-Lithuanian war. Or the Paquisha war.

Darwin Australia is nice, and very close to Indoneisa. Not saying they would ever invade, but if they did, the condition of the country would not be a factor to overcome. It's not like it's the outback.

From a military standpoint...

Projection is always the issue. In an argument of China v. anyone from a naval point of view (Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Philippines, Indonesia, ect) it would be very difficult for China to win.

Think about it. China has a very low chance of a sucessful invasion of Taiwan, 1v1. Think about how small Taiwan is. China simply does not have the maritime force to transport the kind of men and material needed to invade and occupy them. Yes, they could decimate the country via air and mainland artillery forces, and they certainly have the troops, but not the ships.

Much in the same way, you could argue a maritime invasion of almost anywhere by anyone. Even the USA has had its allies helping to prevent maritime invasions. In the case of Iraq, we built up in Kuwait first to invade Iraq.

Taking any country in the pacific rim, sans those that are on the mainland, would be disaster for about everyone. Heck, look at the US vs. Japan in WW2...We had some god-awful bloody battles on little rocks, despite having some nice tech. It would be no different with China invading anyone.

On the other end, you have advantages for pacific rim nations - South Korea could be a staging ground for any invasion of mainland China. Although it decimate South Korea in the process (at least that is likely), you could invade China rather easily. I mean, the Japanese did it, after all.

For Indonesia v. Australia....That is a laughable argument. Indonesia has about 20 modern fighters mixed between F-16 Block 15s, SU-27's and SU-30's. Australia has 71 modern F-18s which would overwhelm Indonesian air assets, and be able to bomb naval assets at will. Sufficive to say....It would be so unbelievably one-sided that Indonesia would have a death wish unless they were aided by another power. Oh, and the Aussies have 21 F-111's still in service. That would significantly help with the conflict.

We also have a more advanced and numerous navy from what I understand aswell. It wouldn't be a war that Indeonesia could win if they were trying to project there power in Australia. But I doubt they'd try it, if we fought it'd probably be in Papua New Guinea or something. That wouldn't surprise me.