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WSJ: 'Xi Has Spent Decades Preparing for a Cold War with the U.S.'

33 points by MilnerRoute 1y ago

zxspectrum1982 1y ago
[flagged]
- jauntywundrkind 1y ago
  The angst and anger and destruction of all of our shared cultures by radical extremist anti-wokers is 1000% worse. Such rage over letting other people exist.
jauntywundrkind 1y ago
Related, China also speaking of a strong desire to keep the war in Ukraine ongoing, as distraction for the world & the US. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/07/04/europe/china-ukraine-eu-war-intl https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/07/04/europe/china-ukraine-eu-w... Just feels like China has very little to do in this cold war right now. The US just funded a massive war against itself, that is absolutely going to suck up fantastic resources & deeply deeply weaken our nation.
- 1over137 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - jvanderbot 1y ago
    Is there a term for something that is correct and proper when OP says it but is trivially false and easily misinterpreted when stated back by a reply? That's what this is.
- AnimalMuppet 1y ago
  You know, I recently saw someone speculating that China would be ready for war in 2027 (as is their stated goal), but that they would go after Siberia rather than Taiwan. Taiwan is very risky (have to cross the strait, and who knows what the US will do?), but Siberia is more straightforward. Well, if China is in fact thinking that, then China would love to keep the war in Ukraine going, because it weakens Russia.
  - seuraughty 1y ago
    That is absolutely nuts and one of the worst takes I’ve heard - a major land invasion with the goal of permanent occupation against Russia, who has nukes ranging from tactical to theater to strategic. China wants Russia isolated and dependent on them so they can exploit the relationship, that’s it.
  - seuraughty 1y ago
    That is absolutely nuts - a major land invasion with the goal of permanent occupation against Russia, who has nukes ranging from tactical to theater to strategic. China wants Russia isolated and dependent on them so they can exploit the relationship, that’s it.
  - nothercastle 1y ago
    They don’t need tanks to take over Siberia just time. In 100 years Siberia will be a Chinese territory and can claim independence and join the mainland. My understanding is that the Chinese population there already is quite high and growing quickly.
dumbledoren 1y ago
Could that be because the US think tanks and establishment mouthpieces published papers on how the US needed to destroy China to prevent it from becoming an economic competitor decades ago, and then started appointing people to the State Dept. to implement that plan?
AngryData 1y ago
China isn't dumb, they saw what the US did to the USSR and anyone who else who was even the smallest possible threat to the US. And they knew how big of an actual potential threat they would become as they industrialized and hollowed out US manufacturing. And I think it is the right move on their part, surpass the US economically, let the US continuously drain its resources across the globe, and when the US is under pressure and decides China has too much control it will be too late and they can just starve the US out economically. The worst thing that can happen at this point to China is the US actually does build back a broad local manufacturing sector and reduces imports, but that still leaves China with a far larger domestic market. Every other potential outcome has China sitting in an even better position.
- lvl155 1y ago
  What did they do to the USSR? They collapsed all on their own. If China were on its way up, people will flock there to find opportunities (just as they did briefly following the financial crisis) but the exact opposite is happening. China had its shot but they timed it poorly.
  - AngryData 1y ago
    Besides the repeated sanctions and embargos, propaganda, proxy wars, and military dick waving contests? I don't know how you can believe China is on anything except an upward trend right now. Many countries won't even let people buy Chinese cars because they are so far ahead of everyone else in cost and manufacturing efficiency and I don't know any industry where China can't match foreign companies in and compete against. They are in a prime position right now in my opinion. All of their industries have major players in cutting edge technology, yet they still have more population to modernize and sell to domestically, and they supply half the world's manufacturing needs and do work in basically every sector. They have tons of foreign investments into infrastructure and mineral extraction to keep feeding themselves raw materials, they have all the processing equipment to convert raw materials into base materials, they have all the manufacturing to turn those base materials into pretty much any goods they want or need. They have highly educated people and education programs and schools, a robust government, a domestic population still fairly far away from dropping off a cliff like every western nation, they have a strong enough military to be secure against basically any nation outside of global nuclear war, and a populous that broadly supports their government. Outside of multiple chartoonish sized blunders I don't see any path for the near future that doesn't result in Chinese economic growth and increased global positioning and power.
akomtu 1y ago
It's not really a revelation that war machine #1 has spent decades preparing for a war with war machine #2. That's the entire point of their existence: waging wars and preparing for wars.
animitronix 1y ago
lol whatever, China's screwed
- 1over137 1y ago
  Peter Zeihan, is that you? ;)
Havoc 1y ago
When you’re preparing to take on the #1 then yeah you prepare for a face off
aaron695 1y ago
China being normal is preparing for cold war? I see no evidence of nuclear stockpiling or long range capabilities. All their cool war tech is short-medium range. They are strengthening a nation for a billion people in a non-isolationist way. They are doing what the US did before it became soft. China builds hard infrastructure for themselves and others. They teach hard science. Their propaganda was to get a popular person to visit. Europe lives off American R&D and does art projects like decommissioning nuclear power. Because China contributes it's cold war?
- baybal2 1y ago
  [dead]

33 points by MilnerRoute 1y ago

zxspectrum1982 1y ago

[flagged]

jauntywundrkind 1y ago
The angst and anger and destruction of all of our shared cultures by radical extremist anti-wokers is 1000% worse. Such rage over letting other people exist.

jauntywundrkind 1y ago

Related, China also speaking of a strong desire to keep the war in Ukraine ongoing, as distraction for the world & the US. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/07/04/europe/china-ukraine-eu-war-intl https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/07/04/europe/china-ukraine-eu-w... Just feels like China has very little to do in this cold war right now. The US just funded a massive war against itself, that is absolutely going to suck up fantastic resources & deeply deeply weaken our nation.

1over137 1y ago
[flagged]
- jvanderbot 1y ago
  Is there a term for something that is correct and proper when OP says it but is trivially false and easily misinterpreted when stated back by a reply? That's what this is.
AnimalMuppet 1y ago
You know, I recently saw someone speculating that China would be ready for war in 2027 (as is their stated goal), but that they would go after Siberia rather than Taiwan. Taiwan is very risky (have to cross the strait, and who knows what the US will do?), but Siberia is more straightforward. Well, if China is in fact thinking that, then China would love to keep the war in Ukraine going, because it weakens Russia.
- seuraughty 1y ago
  That is absolutely nuts and one of the worst takes I’ve heard - a major land invasion with the goal of permanent occupation against Russia, who has nukes ranging from tactical to theater to strategic. China wants Russia isolated and dependent on them so they can exploit the relationship, that’s it.
- seuraughty 1y ago
  That is absolutely nuts - a major land invasion with the goal of permanent occupation against Russia, who has nukes ranging from tactical to theater to strategic. China wants Russia isolated and dependent on them so they can exploit the relationship, that’s it.
- nothercastle 1y ago
  They don’t need tanks to take over Siberia just time. In 100 years Siberia will be a Chinese territory and can claim independence and join the mainland. My understanding is that the Chinese population there already is quite high and growing quickly.

dumbledoren 1y ago

Could that be because the US think tanks and establishment mouthpieces published papers on how the US needed to destroy China to prevent it from becoming an economic competitor decades ago, and then started appointing people to the State Dept. to implement that plan?

AngryData 1y ago

China isn't dumb, they saw what the US did to the USSR and anyone who else who was even the smallest possible threat to the US. And they knew how big of an actual potential threat they would become as they industrialized and hollowed out US manufacturing. And I think it is the right move on their part, surpass the US economically, let the US continuously drain its resources across the globe, and when the US is under pressure and decides China has too much control it will be too late and they can just starve the US out economically. The worst thing that can happen at this point to China is the US actually does build back a broad local manufacturing sector and reduces imports, but that still leaves China with a far larger domestic market. Every other potential outcome has China sitting in an even better position.

lvl155 1y ago
What did they do to the USSR? They collapsed all on their own. If China were on its way up, people will flock there to find opportunities (just as they did briefly following the financial crisis) but the exact opposite is happening. China had its shot but they timed it poorly.
- AngryData 1y ago
  Besides the repeated sanctions and embargos, propaganda, proxy wars, and military dick waving contests? I don't know how you can believe China is on anything except an upward trend right now. Many countries won't even let people buy Chinese cars because they are so far ahead of everyone else in cost and manufacturing efficiency and I don't know any industry where China can't match foreign companies in and compete against. They are in a prime position right now in my opinion. All of their industries have major players in cutting edge technology, yet they still have more population to modernize and sell to domestically, and they supply half the world's manufacturing needs and do work in basically every sector. They have tons of foreign investments into infrastructure and mineral extraction to keep feeding themselves raw materials, they have all the processing equipment to convert raw materials into base materials, they have all the manufacturing to turn those base materials into pretty much any goods they want or need. They have highly educated people and education programs and schools, a robust government, a domestic population still fairly far away from dropping off a cliff like every western nation, they have a strong enough military to be secure against basically any nation outside of global nuclear war, and a populous that broadly supports their government. Outside of multiple chartoonish sized blunders I don't see any path for the near future that doesn't result in Chinese economic growth and increased global positioning and power.

akomtu 1y ago

It's not really a revelation that war machine #1 has spent decades preparing for a war with war machine #2. That's the entire point of their existence: waging wars and preparing for wars.

animitronix 1y ago

lol whatever, China's screwed

1over137 1y ago
Peter Zeihan, is that you? ;)

Havoc 1y ago

When you’re preparing to take on the #1 then yeah you prepare for a face off

aaron695 1y ago

China being normal is preparing for cold war? I see no evidence of nuclear stockpiling or long range capabilities. All their cool war tech is short-medium range. They are strengthening a nation for a billion people in a non-isolationist way. They are doing what the US did before it became soft. China builds hard infrastructure for themselves and others. They teach hard science. Their propaganda was to get a popular person to visit. Europe lives off American R&D and does art projects like decommissioning nuclear power. Because China contributes it's cold war?

baybal2 1y ago
[dead]