31–40 of 50 posts
Few things in that article make any sense. Buffer regions? Who exactly is going to start a land invasion of China? And a land invasion through Tibet, the roof of the world?
Author neglects to think what might happen with climate change. Let's assume that the rising sea levels don't necessarily push back the coast, but it could start salinating the land and cause a lot of issues with food supply.
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This same over simplistic view is used to explain why Russia expanded so aggressively to the west and east, and holds its client states so tightly. There is a nice grassy plain from Poland all the way through to the Caucasus (with the Urals as a somewhat permeable barrier). Armies on the move love grassy plains. If your objective is to protect Moscow, you need to control that grassy plain. Edit: ref: Prisoners of Geo…
> There is a nice grassy plain from Poland all the way through to the Caucasus That would be the Pripyat Marshes? That is notoriously inhospitable terrain for armies.
They're not really a big obstacle, given the two land invasions that came from the West in the 20th century.
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> There is a nice grassy plain from Poland all the way through to the Caucasus That would be the Pripyat Marshes? That is notoriously inhospitable terrain for armies.
Pripyat Marshes are not a big stretch of the North European Plain. You can move massive armies through the northern route along the Baltic coast, or the southern route through Ukraine. They're not really a big obstacle, given the two land invasions that came from the West in the 20th century.
Both unsuccessful. But I note your observation that the Pripyat is not as large as my crap geography led me to think.
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China is incredibly strong, but in the last century it suffered from terrible invasions. Yes, it probably can overcome any attack but it makes sense for a strategic thinker to worry that another power would try to attack it again. Think about the US.. Is the US really under threat of invasion? No. But there is a realistic historical concern about a surprise attack that animates US defense policy. Getting attacked and…
The US being "invaded" is far less likely. Canada is its ally / vassal. Mexico itself isn't terribly strong. If anyone attempts to springboard via either would serves as early warning for the US and they'd take the battle there. There are also not a lot of coastal countries, other than Cuba, so last time someone parked some nukes there in response to the US parking nukes in Turkey, the world wondered if it's all over…
IMHO, the PRC's (really the CCP's) biggest strategic threat is domestic, and they're starting to transition into a more imperialistic/expansionist mode to make good on revanchist sentiment.
It's really hard to take the article seriously given how much it oversimplifies its premises.
Can't take this serious. The "Hu Line" is massively inconsistent in the various maps used here! In the topographical one, Sichuan is west of the Hu-Line, while in others it is east of it. Make up your mind. Don't fuddle with the line just to tell a story.
> But I wouldn’t be surprised if, at some point in the future, the Han started a systematic Han-ization of Tibet. Well, practically speaking, it already started a long time ago, although the colonization wasn't as intensive (after all, not many people would find the Himalayan conditions agreeable). Also, even Tibetans themselves speak less and less Tibetan, everything is in Chinese, your school, your job, everything…
I lived in Lhasa with my ex girlfriend for a while (2016~2017). In a strange occasion via a Tibetan friend of mine I met a British photographer in his 60s/70s who was one of the few foreigners granted permanent residency in Tibet. (He showed me his residency ID and it was a yellow-ish paper issued in the 1980s.) Anyway long story short, he jokingly told me that my friend (who's a doctor in a Tibetan hospital) is one…
This is spot on. Along with lots of other benefits and money directly or indirectly flowing into their hands. Keep them entertained, well fed.
Let's conveniently forget the 100 years of the Yuan dynasty ruled by Mongols and the 300 years of the Quing dynasty ruled by the Manchu and pretends that the history of China is the history of the Han. Why would anyone question that? It's really hard to take the article seriously given how much it oversimplifies its premises.
> China is surrounded by foes on its coast. This is why it works so hard to expand its territorial waters. I would argue the exact opposite. China works so hard to expand its territorial waters. This is why China is surrounded by foes on its coast.
Silly to ignore the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of fish and oil that everyone in the region is staking a claim to in the South China Sea. Absolutely no one cared in the slightest about it up until vast tracts of oil were discovered and fishing rights in the region started to actually be enforced by militaries.
"The threat came from this direction last time. We need to secure this frontier" is convincing enough for me.