China Claims Vietnam and North Korea

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Vlad Antlerkov
Didn't the Chinese own what's now Mongolia at some point?

Wasn't it the other way around?

[Sonic]

Lithuania would then claim Ukraine, Moldavia, Belarus, half of Poland, big part of European Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Kaliningrad oblast

However, I believe Mongolia would be the nation which could claim the most because of history .

[TheStinger]

We'll have our "American colonies" back please

[Q Classic]

what about the vatican (as Rome) claiming most of europe and the mediterranean?

[Vlad Antlerkov]

Dino:

Meh, scratch that. Looked at the text I got that idea from (China owning Mongolia during the late Qing dynasty) and it shows Mongolia as separate.

And Cthulhu knows what Saudi Arabia (on behalf of Mecca and Medina) would pull under this pretext...

[H Tower]

Originally posted by Lord Merciless
The source: http://www.onion.com

That was good laugh.

link to the article

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Vlad Antlerkov
Meh, scratch that. Looked at the text I got that idea from (China owning Mongolia during the late Qing dynasty) and it shows Mongolia as separate.

That's true. Mongolia, Manchuria, and large parts of Seberia was part of Chinese territory during the Qing dynasty. At least the early part of Qing.

[Adalbertus]

Beginners. Bloody beginners, the Chinese (or the Onion, if you prefer). Take an example with the French. The policics of "reunion" which was meant to conquer the German regions between Maas and Rhine (of which they had conquered three cities beforehand, or so). They justified this by the reunification of regions that earlier formed one country.
Hey, you've got to apply this principle twice and are justified to conquer nearly all of the world!

[Urban Ranger]

That's going to be easy, just reunit all the Chinatowns around the world

[David Floyd]

I am pretty sure that the PRC won't be able to land from the air in anyform a suitable attack , due to the lack of transport aircraft on a major scale, but a massive attack by air-superiority jets , coupled with strike aircraft armed with Radiation seeking missiles , could take them out. a late 1970 Soviet or US military would be able to do it . Of course, China isn't even near.

Isn't that just precisely the point?

[Az]

Well, true enough , but big spending can increase performance in a very short time.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by David Floyd


True, but compared to the Chinese navy, or any other navy in Asia, I don't see how they could lose.

Getting blown full of holes by standoff ASM's one tin can at a time.


The PRC can easily take Taiwan (easily in terms of it's up to the PRC to define acceptable casualties incurred and damage inflicted).

The question is only how much cost is acceptable in their political and economic calculations?

Taiwan could have the best air force in the world - it don't mean **** if the fuel's burning and the airfields are cratered.

The best aird defense system in the world can be saturated, one sector at a time, by ballistic missiles.

The PRC has the total mass to crush every form of Taiwanese air and coastal defense, such that they could get ashore with rowboats. Again, the only question is how much political risk, and how much damage to Taiwan are you willing to do - or are the Taiwanese willing to sustain before the inevitable surrender.

An island is the ultimate form of fixed fortification, and as such, it is utterly indefensible in absolute terms. The only question is relative cost and worth.

[Gatekeeper]

MtG, et al.:

Hmm ... OK, so if Taiwan has no independent future and can only look forward to being part of China again — by peaceable means nor not — who's next on China's list of places to, uh, bring back under the protective wing of the motherland?

Gatekeeper

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
An island is the ultimate form of fixed fortification, and as such, it is utterly indefensible in absolute terms. The only question is relative cost and worth.

The fact that they want the island's infrastructure relatively intact if/when reunification happens is the main obstacle to invasion.

[MichaeltheGreat]

DD - exactly. They can do it, and if Taiwan forces their hand, they will do it, but until then, it's just the world's biggest game of chicken.

Gatekeeper - I've never thought of the Chinese as being expansionist per se, it's just more dirt and people to manage. Expanding influence and power is another story altogether, though.