OT: China-US Blance of Power
 

Interesting analysis from the Rand Corporation about the changing balance of power between China and the US from 1996 to 2017.

http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand...RAND_RR392.pdf

This of course only relates to a conflict in Taiwan and the Spratly Islands.

Also
 

Did you read the RAND report on a war game they did not long ago . NATO vs Russia .

Sinking US aircraft carriers will resolve tension in South China Sea...
 

What could possibly go wrong with this idea?
https://www.foxnews.com/world/sinkin...6dpTc3eolDy8oE

Yeh best of luck trying to that. This will tell you the standard of people running the Chinese Navy.

China's ability to focus on a project is amazing. As an example, in 2014 they addressed the incredible problem they had with urban particulate pollution or 'smog'. This month they have effectively beaten it through regulation and enforced upgrades to infrastructure. In fact it happened so fast that scientists have only just discovered that smog absorbs ozone and they have an ozone pollution problem, something not seen of before. China say this will be fixed in two years and I believe them.

The other thing I've noticed as I've been checking out the defence industry news is the massive amount of unlicensed copies of military equipment China makes that no one seemingly can stop them doing. If it's a good piece of kit it's likely the Chinese have reverse-engineered it.

These two facts point to a concerning ability for China to get war-ready faster than most states can react to it. I'm reminded, although the parallels aren't exact, of how France couldn't respond to Germany's rapid rearmament in the end of the 30s.