NEWS: Russia and China to stage War Games

Russia and China are to hold joint war games to improve communication reliability sometime next year (from 2002 article, the year being 2005). A Chinese spokesperson denied the games were aimed at a third country and that their sole purpose was to improve "signal communication" to reduce the dangerousness of joint border operations.



The article quoted is from 2002, when the possibility of joint war games was first raised. On Dec. 13, 2004, the war games were confirmed. (www.cnn.com...) In the second article there is less talk about signal communication and more talk about general cooperation. Especially disturbing is the fact that China will buy Russian technology. Think about this: couple China's industrial capacity with the old Soviet technology, and Russia's extra land to take China's excess population, and then combine the two largest countries in the world, and you have a monstrous superpower on a scale that has never been witnessed before. That is my main point. If these two countries get close, the US, as well as the rest of the world, is sunk. And don't forget that Russia has ICBM technology, which to my understanding is something the Chinese lack.

I'm sure someone here at ATS can give a better analysis than I can but I felt that this needed to be posted; it should provide some interesting discussion.

Related News Links:
www.cnn.com

[edit on 12/15/04 by NothingMakesSense]

[edit on 12/15/04 by NothingMakesSense]

Firstly, good post. And yeah, it is worrying whenever two governments that resist US policy start getting cozy in a military sense. But the below extract from your post seems a bit far-fetched to me:

"couple China's industrial capacity with the old Soviet technology, and Russia's extra land to take China's excess population, and then combine the two largest countries in the world, and you have a monstrous superpower on a scale that has never been witnessed before."

I just don't see that happening...I mean, the two countries may be holding joint war games, but that doesn't mean their going to form one country. I mean, the US and Canada have been holding joint war games for almost a hundred years, and the Canadians don't have any intention of becoming the fifty first state. The Russians have a long history of resisting invasions of sovereignity in the face of terrible odds... I just don't see the russian peopletossing all that away to join with China, a historic enemy.

On the other hand, this is concerning in a very long-term sense. But a very, very, very long term sense. Russia is still a very shaky country. China is much less so, but it still lacks a general nation misson (in a global sense). This is all my opinion of course, but I believe that among the requirements to be a superpower, none is more vital than a sense of International Mission. Without Mission, the country lacks the will to assert itself outside it's regional interests, and thus confines itself to it's own part of the world.

Unless China were threatened by a terrorist group far away from it's borders (perhaps al qaeda), Taiwan still tops the list of international concerns for it. And of course, international terrorists have no reason to attack China because China is not involved in MiddleEast on the scale that America is, a situation that is unlikely to change in the near future.

I (like many Americans) just wish that the Taiwan issue would go away. As for the mainland itself, we can't expect it to become democratic overnight. We have to be realistically patient, and just hope that the country moves in the direction we want it to, so that IF it acquires a Mission, and directs its energies towards becoming a superpower, it is one that will be friendly to America. Otherwise, we're in for a whole new cold war. Anyways, only time will tell whether things keep getting better or if we take a big step backwards. Maybe wars between major nations are a thing of the past, in which case, China could be a potential ally in the War on Terror (asssuming it still rages when China becomes a superpower). Either way, I just think that this is all very far away.

And don't forget that Russia has ICBM technology, which to my understanding is something the Chinese lack.

The Chinese have had ICBM's since 1971, where a first test flight of the Df-5 was conducted. In 1981 it was operationalized. As of 2004, China has 20-30 ICBMS of 15,000km range.

"Let the games begin!"

If they're playing games fine. In fact, that sounds like fun.

"Join the 2005 Military Olympics! This year in the China vs. U.S. battle, China is playing for the right for Hawaii and the U.S. is playing for Taiwan."

Hey, have any of y'all looked into Chinese culture? It's pretty cool.

Maybe they'll have so much fun playing that they'd never want to really die because they don't get extra lives.


[edit on 16-12-2004 by saint4God]

[edit on 16-12-2004 by saint4God]