xandreu wrote: ↑Thu Jun 16, 2022 4:58 pm maybe the US would be better off working out what China is doing right

Just curious what it is you think that China is doing right, and for what end are doing it?

xandreu wrote: ↑Thu Jun 16, 2022 10:57 am As an independent, sovereign state, Cambodia is free to ally itself to whomever it thinks is in its best interests, without threats and intimidation.

I fail to see the difference between the US telling Cambodia who it can and can't parter up with, and Russia telling Ukraine it cannot join NATO. Seriously, what is the difference?

A lot of countries are turning their backs on the US and turning towards China now. Maybe the US would better off asking itself why.

It’s the US’s way of telling Cambodia that they must choose US financial support or China. This isn’t about intimidation, it’s a business transaction for more presence in the region. The 2021 US budget had $100 million for Cambodia. The US also sent 2 million Covid vaccines to them. I guess Cambodia can “turn its back” on free money if China will pick up the slack.

John Bingham wrote: ↑Fri Jun 17, 2022 12:16 am

TheImplication wrote: ↑Thu Jun 16, 2022 11:38 pm This isn’t about intimidation, it’s a business transaction for more presence in the region. The 2021 US budget had $100 million for Cambodia. The US also sent 2 million Covid vaccines to them. I guess Cambodia can “turn its back” on free money if China will pick up the slack.

That's peanuts compared to private foreign investment and loans from China, South Korea, Japan etc.
The real threat here is that the majority of Cambodian garment exports, a mainstay of the economy, go to the US.
A tariff slapped on Cambodian garments could devastate the economy.

That’s why I said it’s a business transaction. Pick one or the other. The US isn’t intimidating or forcing them to do anything. China and whoever else can just cover the difference. Obviously the US has strategic intentions.

Freightdog wrote: ↑Fri Jun 17, 2022 11:09 am

Brody wrote: ↑Thu Jun 16, 2022 11:12 pm

xandreu wrote: ↑Thu Jun 16, 2022 4:58 pm maybe the US would be better off working out what China is doing right

Just curious what it is you think that China is doing right, and for what end are doing it?

I’d be interested to know the thoughts on this, as well.

From what I’ve seen over the last few years, China’s intentions are not in any way altruistic. I’m not suggesting that the US is, btw.
But China’s somewhat aggressive economic policies are rather in line with their intrusive military efforts across a very broad region, and equally confrontational diplomatic. To what end? Greater, near exclusive control of the Asia/western pacific region?

It’s pointless trying to excuse this by reference to the events in Europe, with Russia and Ukraine, as anyone with a double digit IQ can see that Russian intent and Russian rhetoric are completely contradictory. And there IS an ongoing conflict.

This seems like the question everyone has regarding China. To what end? I would say it's complicated.

For years now China has had a big problem with having US bases on their doorstep and Western countries influencing their neighbours and rivals. They see it as a threat and from what I understand it's something that has heavily influenced their strategy and decision making. I've seen Chinese political commentators say that Chinese expansion into the Pacific is a result of feeling threatened, they're pushing back. This is part of something that goes back to colonial times, China has been a victim in the past, it's a big part of their psyche and part of the government's social contract with the people is not allowing that to happen again.

China also claims they are only doing what everyone else is doing, trying to get rich and prosperous by expanding their influence and it's hypocritical for the West to criticize China for doing what they themselves (Western countries) have already done. Again, it goes back to feeling like they've been pushed around and held back for the last few hundred years and now 'we' are trying to do it again.

And so now that they have power and money they're pushing back, expanding their influence and building bases. I understand that, I'll even go as far as saying it's not unreasonable but it's unnerving because who knows where they'll stop. I'd like to think they're just looking for a bit of breathing room, a sense of security and to be in a position where they're not going to be pushed around by others but I've seen how rapacious they can be, I'm hoping Xi doesn't decide he's the modern Genghis Khan.

Opinion piece from the National Interest blog.
[excerpts]

June 17, 2022
Should the U.S. Be Worried About a Chinese Naval Base in Cambodia?
There are legitimate grounds to believe that a Chinese base in Cambodia is not all that detrimental to American interests in the Indo-Pacific.
by Harrison Nugent

Reports have emerged that Chinese officials have been secretly working to construct a permanent military facility at Ream Naval Base in Cambodia on the Gulf of Thailand. If true, this project would become China’s second overseas military installation after the Port of Doraleh in Djibouti and would be a watershed moment for Indo-Pacific geopolitics.

Does the Ream facility pose a threat to the United States and its allies?

Some analysts have pointed out that the Ream Naval Base would not be of much use in a conflict involving Chinese territory. Satellite imagery of the pier construction and land dredging along China’s alleged portion of the base reveals that Ream has the capacity to support, at best, nothing larger than mid-sized vessels. This is similar to Singapore’s capacity to host U.S. Navy littoral combat ships which by themselves are hardly decisive for the military balance in the region.
Ream does offer direct access to the Gulf of Thailand but that serves little purpose since Chinese shipping routes pass much further to the south once transiting the Strait of Malacca. Furthermore, in the event of military confrontation over Hong Kong or Taiwan, Chinese bases in Hainan are much better positioned to respond to emerging threats than a base in Cambodia, which risks interdiction from southern Vietnam and the Malay Peninsula.

All of this is to say that there are a number of questions that need to be addressed before the United States can determine an appropriate response.

Full article: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/ ... dia-203022

Food for thought? Personally, I think it's a sign of weakness for Xi to take the reins for life. It shows that they are under great pressure from the global business community as we speak, despite their size, I think that is illusory at best. Communism will always falter in the end. Eating it's own tail for lunch.

“Yet the hard fact is that China’s already robust GDP is predicted to continue to grow by at least 7 or 8 percent, thereby surpassing that of the United States by 2018 at the earliest, according to economists from the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the United Nations.25 Unfortunately, China policy experts like me were so wedded to the idea of the “coming collapse of China”26 that few of us believed these forecasts. While we worried about China’s woes, its economy more than doubled.”


Excerpt From: Pillsbury, Michael. “The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower.” iBooks.

and..

(CNN)China on Friday launched its third and most advanced aircraft carrier from Shanghai's Jiangnan Shipyard, with new combat systems that experts say are fast catching up with the United States.

Named "Fujian," the ship is China's first domestically designed and built catapult aircraft carrier, state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
Its electromagnetic catapult-assisted launch system is a major upgrade from the less advanced ski jump-style system used on the Liaoning and the Shandong, its two predecessors, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank.
The new system, similar to the ones used by US aircraft carriers, will allow China to launch a wider variety of aircraft from the Fujian faster and with more ammunition.
In addition to the launch system, the Fujian is equipped with blocking devices, and a full-load displacement of more than 80,000 tons, Xinhua reported, adding that the ship will carry out mooring tests and navigation tests after the launch.
Matthew Funaiole, senior fellow at the CSIS's China Project, told CNN previously that the new ship would be the Chinese military's first modern aircraft carrier.
"This is a pretty significant step forward," he said. "They've really committed to building out a carrier program, and they continue to push the boundaries of what they're able to do."
China names its aircraft carriers after its coastal provinces, with Liaoning in the northeast and Shandong in the east. Fujian, in the southeast, is the closest province to Taiwan, separated by a strait that is fewer than 80 miles (128 kilometers) wide at its narrowest point.
China's ruling Communist Party claims sovereignty over the self-ruling democracy of Taiwan, despite having never governed it. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has repeatedly said that "reunification" between China and Taiwan is inevitable and refused to rule out the use of force.
China now wields the largest naval force in the world, and aircraft carriers are the core vessels of any major power's fleet. The massive ships are essentially a mobile airbase, allowing for the rapid, long-term deployment of aircraft and weaponry to a combat theater.
China's naval buildup comes amid growing geopolitical tensions with the US, which under President Joe Biden is seeking to strengthen ties with allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific region to counter Beijing's growing economic influence and military might.
Last year, Beijing bristled at a security pact between the US, the UK and Australia named AUKUS, an agreement by which the three nations would exchange military information and technology to form a closer defense partnership in Asia. The naval exercises attended by members of the resuscitated informal dialogue between the US, Japan, Australia and India, known as the Quad, has further unsettled Beijing.