China is stockpiling – we must do the same

[Gathering6678]

"it is spending about $700 billion"

Where is the number from? Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates China's military expenditure in 2022 to be $292.0 billion, trailing $877.0 billion of US. (source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_China))

There are not a lot more numbers (let alone numbers with sources) in the article. China has a lot of EV batteries because it is leading in promoting EV usage. It stockpiles a lot of agricultural products because, well, there are a lot of mouths to feed.

[woooooo]

Once you realize the goal of these articles is to funnel US money into defense spending, they make a lot more sense.

[csomar]

The $700bn seems to be adjusted for power purchase parity.

[DrScientist]

Places like China and India etc have huge human resources and will inevitably [1] catch up the West in terms of economic power.

We have two broad choices

- brutally suppress development in these countries to remain 'top dog' or

- continue to build those international structures that were founded after the second world war - like the UN, that were designed to stop a repeat of WWII.

I fear the current approach of unpicking international norms and constraints in order to be able to do more of option 1 is leading us to WWWIII, not protecting us from it.

[1] If we don't take option 1 above.

[deeth_starr_v]

Seems like you are presenting a false choice. China has clearly stated its intention to compete and overtake the US as a core power. If the US is able to build and maintain strategic partnerships and military deterrence then that ascension of China would be less risky. I disagree with your whole premise of competition as “brutal suppression”. The most likely outcome of the trade war is that China will eventually have its own chip industries that are on par or more advanced then the US.

[spwa4]

But fair would be to evaluate the success ratio of option 2 as well: look up "league of nations", "concert of Europe" and there have been several organizations before that ... They all are definitely structures founded to prevent war ... and now the consensus is mostly that they caused WW2 (they were the ones organizing the "Treaty of Versailles").

[polotics]

The notion that it is the UN and other such organisations that led to the period of (relative) peace in the 20th century post-WW2 is very far fetched. I would bet instead on these five horsemen of the peace, in order:

- Mutually Assured Destruction risks

- No unmanageable effects of CO2-induced climate disruption

- Plenty of available oil to burn, with high EROEI

- Plentiful resources and enough growth all-round

- The UN and other such organisations

[tmaly]

what about building robots?

[yamrzou]

https://archive.is/o4hME

[maxglute]

US sanctions on PRC limit what PRC can buy now, may be confiscated pending US admin to prevent PRC spending later.

Meanwhile PRC trade surplus huge -> PRC USD reserves huge -> USD is strong and commodity prices not too whack due to global slow down.

Why not stock up now? Eventual global recovery could trigger expensive commodity super cycle. Would it be helpful in war, sure. But PRC needs to build up nukes first, going to take a few years for 50% parity.

[kkfx]

When climate change people have to change, this means migrations, war for resources etc, ANYONE wise do it's best to be as resilient and resourceful as possible. Accidentally this is the opposite of modern nazi-management paradigm.

[tmaly]

are you talking about hydra?

[snapplebobapple]

This guy misses the point (although he is right we should be stockpiling munitions and a bunch of other strategic things). China has to stockpile because they are net importers of almost all raw resources and a decently long list of countries can field a naval force strong enough to, for example, block the strait of malacca which would hobble them in months, not years. There's no equivalent for America on everything (There are pain points like semiconductors but they are pain points for everyone, not just america. The big ticket items (food and energy) can be handled internally at this point).

[OutOfHere]

China is accumulating commodities that will make its currency a dominating one in the global reserve currency space. It's a long term play, and I don't believe it has anything to do with Trump or Taiwan.

[more_corn]

So, China which refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is a country, and which has informed its military to prepare all options for reunification by 2027… are you predicting that they will NOT invade Taiwan? And how much money would you like to put down on your prediction?

[McDyver]

This opinion piece is so loaded with fear mongering, divisiveness and subtle suggestions of "faits accomplis", that I can't read it without propaganda alarms sounding everywhere

[EricE]

Yes - and mostly completely negated by de-emphasizing the very misnamed "green" agenda.

[tmaly]

have you consider a daily meditation practice in place of reading such posts?

[wasteduniverse]

Feels like people are starting to realize just how inflated the whole US/China rivalry is: it doesn't really work if you already know how co-dependent and intertwined our economies are.

Yeah, I know these types of articles are just kickbacks to the DoD, they'll always exist. It just seems like nobody actually cares anymore, when it used to be that at least a few people cared.

[r0ckarong]

So engage in a resource war and anything else really than putting any effort in stopping Trump. Got it.