It is increasingly appears that the CCP government wants to confront every countries at the same time. First, I thought this was just the power struggle/grab between US-CCP economically. Then, it spread to the political issues like the South China sea claims which pisses off Viet Nam, The Philippines , Taiwan. The CCP even manages to engage India into its territorial issue resulted in sanction from Indian gov. In the north-east side, the CCP is irritating Japan to a point Japan is considering ramping up its army.
If the CCP wants conflicts at least it needs to find allies, right? So why then it tries to piss off just about every countries it's surrounded by?
No shortage of Chinese allies - 70+ countries supported China's recent change to Hong Kong's laws (https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1193422.shtml). Certainly none of these countries are bastions of freedom - North Korea, Venezuela, Chad, Myanmar, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan. But all of them support China to the hilt. Tanzania didn't even stop with an endorsement of the HK law, they also felt it necessary to mention that Taiwan is a part of China. Turns out Chinese loans go a long way in creating a sense of gratitude.
All countries barring the US need China more than China needs them. And China only needs the US until it has semiconductors of it's own.
The US and EU were asleep at the wheel these last 30 years - allowing China to grow powerful without also creating a counterweight like India. Now the world's dependence on Chinese manufacturing and Chinese consumption means that no one dares to criticise China, and there's no shortage of countries lining up to praise every action of Comrade Xi's.
That's why China can screw over every neighbour, taking what they please. Who's going to stop them? Is Vietnam or Malaysia suddenly going to stand up to China? No, they will merely grumble. Is India willing to provoke an actual war? No, they will merely ban TikTok and call it a day.
> That's why China can screw over every neighbour, taking what they please. Who's going to stop them? Is Vietnam or Malaysia suddenly going to stand up to China? No, they will merely grumble.
ah yes, exactly the same logic that resulted in World War 2
The world is much more inter-connected than it was then. The cost of a war with China is orders of magnitude more than the cost of a war with Germany. In fact, for the first several months of WWII, British and French citizens barely noticed the war.
War with China would be extremely painful, every single item that modern life depends upon apart from food will suddenly become scarce. That acts as a powerful deterrent.
> The world is much more inter-connected than it was then. The cost of a war with China is orders of magnitude more than the cost of a war with Germany.
"economic interdependence prevents wars" was commonly accepted to be true in the 1910s, right up until the outbreak of World War I
If the CCP wants conflicts at least it needs to find allies, right? So why then it tries to piss off just about every countries it's surrounded by?