Comment by mschuster91
20 hours ago
China wants but China won't. They lack the military capability of force projection that is the basis of the US dollar dominance, their currency cannot be used as a reserve/trading currency due to capital transfer controls (that have no sign of ever going away because otherwise everyone who has money in China will move it immediately out of the reach of the CCP), foreign investors have gotten very skeptical over the years regarding IP theft on one side and supply chain law issues (e.g. underage labor, 996 and modern slavery, environmental concerns) on the other, and on top of that China is getting rocked hard by the inevitable consequences of the one-child policy that is driving up labor costs, further reducing the attractivity for foreign investors.
China doesn’t need to project force. Economics might is sufficient.
Yes, they want Taiwan, but that’s a silly national pride thing. It would not really benefit them to take it by force.
And the US wants Greenland, Canada, random other countries here or there...
> Yes, they want Taiwan, but that’s a silly national pride thing. It would not really benefit them to take it by force.
We thought the same about Putin, and yet he went and invaded Ukraine.
We thought the same about Trump, and yet he went and abducted the president of a sovereign country.
Never underestimate nationalist BS or outright mental deficiency.
The difference is desperation. Putin was facing instability and was afraid of ending up like Khadafi. He needed a war.
Xi is not facing those challenges. He wants Taiwan, but the Chinese play long games so he can wait.