The People's Army In Space?
China just launched its second successful two-manned spacecraft on Oct. 12, 2005. It was piloted to a successful landing 5 days later. This successful flight is said by many to have firmly planted the country as the world's 3rd space power, behind the former Soviet Union and the United States.
The main concern I have with China's increasing space capabilities is the threat of them using this technology to bolster their military prowess. Analysts in the Department of Defense have assessed that military capability "is likely one of the primary drivers behind Beijing’s space endeavors and a critical component."
Many people fear a potential confrontation between China and the United States, citing China's communist system and their past and present statements of hostility towards the U.S. as evidence. On top of that, rising hostilities over the Taiwan question recently prompted a Chinese general to threaten to nuke the United States if she interfered in Taiwan.
I believe the rise of China's economic and military power is alarming, and is something that we need to keep an eye on, especially given the hostility their government has shown towards us over the years.
posted by Anonymous @ 1:31 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Sehk - I never said China was the "enemy". I'm concerned precisely because we don't know what China's intentions are. I think it's unwise to simply trust that a regime that opresses and severely limits the freedom of its own people will always have peaceful intentions. China has undertaken promising reforms as far as opening up the economic system is concerned, and I sincerely hope that will extend to political freedoms for its people as well. But for the time being we need to prepare ourselves against China's considerable military threat should their intentions turn out to be other than peaceful.
The cold war is over. Worry about nuclear attack from the evil commies is simplistic and fails to address the more potent economic factors.
China seems to be all about "-ests" fastest train, tallest radio tower, largest manufacturing resource on the planet. This echoes soviet compensation for a lack of other basic economic abilities. If anyuthing China should prove to be a valuable ally in the curtailing of North Korean and Iranian nuclear ambitions, and not an entity that would increase the global risk of nuclear war.
The other thing that bothers me is everyone's worry that the US will eventually be outdone by another nation, that we will no longer be number 1. China as of yet still has horrendous amounts of improvement to take care of before they can consider themselves (concerning standard of living) on a level with the U.S.
keypoint - Maybe I wasn't very clear on this, but I didn't mean to imply that any country that has an opressive government is a threat to us. What I meant to say was that I put more trust in countries that have free and open societies, such as Great Britain, for example, than I do in countries like China where freedom of speech does not exist like it does here and the government is authoritarian in nature. I see China as a potential threat because of the size and power of the nation, their communist system, and the record of our past relations with them. Personally, I don't think the current leaders of China have any intentions of taking on the United States militarily. But in an authoritarian society, you're always potentially one leader away from someone like Stalin. So I believe that anything China does that appears to be advancing its military power needs to be highly scrutinized and prepared against. As I said before, I hope they continue to reform and eventually become a free and open society. Until that time, "Trust but verify."
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