Is China preparing their economy for war?
https://www.csis.org/analysis/economic-indicators-chinese-military-action-against-taiwan The Center for Strategic & International Studies takes a look at recent Chinese economic and trade initiatives and wonders if they’re shaping their national economy to be insulated, or at least less affected, by an upcoming war. Recent actions include: Decoupling from the US economy, including getting off the US dollar and working around US sanctions Shifting exports from the Industrialized West and other hostile or “hostile-adjacent” nations and more towards the Developing World Stockpiling on key materials such as rare earths, energy, and technology imports Restrictions on foreign-developed or imported software. None of this can be taken as…
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One Child, One Soldier: China’s weakness in its reliance on conscription.
The article is worth reading, the summary is that the PLA depends on 2-year conscripts for about 40% of its force, and most of its infantry. While China still has a large population and can be picky about who it drafts, the army creates friction between the military’s expanding need for manpower and the economy’s need for young people to enter the job market. In particular there’s a lot of pressure to create a professional NCO corps, a real necessity in a high-technology force like the PLA wants to be. The Chinese are attempting to push in college graduates into…
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In defending Taiwan Americans are OK with arms, not so much with Troops.
The Chicago Council’s poll shows other two interesting points. One is that support for Taiwan’s defense (not necessarily it’s independence) is pretty equal among identified Republicans, Democrats, and Others. Taiwan is perhaps the one issue that’s truly achieved a bi-partisan consensus in current American politics. The other is that support for a military intervention is about less than half of the respondents. Like the above, this support cuts equally among Rs, Ds, and Others. One trend I also see from the data is that R support for armed intervention declined sharply once Biden entered the White House. I don’t think…
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