i guess i forgot to add, aside from the south china sea sabre rattling, as an outside observer china seems to have a "less is more" strategy when it comes to real military hardware. They have all the latest tech, and of course nukes. But they dont have much of it, and in like the last 1000 years of china's history they don't exactly have a history of going out of their way to start fights.
So their military has a million soldiers, ok, and they have all the latest boom boom toys, but if you compare those techy toy numbers to the US or Russia, it looks alot like, "I can respond in full force if I have to, but I don't want to"
China could totally build 11 super carriers to match the US's numbers, but they don't.
China could totally line its borders with missles like Russia, but they don't.
So as far as a Chinese involved WW3, i don't see it happening, and again, an independent Taiwan has proven to be a good thing for global business.
Its interesting to read about Taiwan's military defensive capabilities, that island has been fortified into a veritable fortress, if china were to take them on with force, they would probably succeed, but it really would require the full military might that they can muster, even with all their techy toys and 1 million soldiers, a victory would still hurt badly and bigly.
imo the chicoms aren't stupid, and they know its just not worth it. Much easier and much more peaceful to just keep up the, "Get back in line, Formosa!" rhetoric and look strong to the world.
In the 21st century, public opinion is how the outcome of any war is decided, and they know that.
but keep an eye on hong kong, that will be used as a measure of how far china thinks it can go.
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so yeah Russia is probably gonna gain some territory. Putin believes that as long a a democrat is in the white house, he can do whatever he wants. Obama didn't even blink an eye when Putin annexed crimea, and Putin knows that Joe Biden is softer than the ice cream he ran his campaign on.
South American nations will fall further into disarray, this plays directly into the democrat hands as they welcome any and all south american folks into this country with open arms and free everything, on my dime no less.
After Putin soaks up the rest of ukraine, a few other EU nations will probably pull a brexit, everybody is sick of NATO sitting on its hands, and U.N. peace councils being less effective than a bug against brick.
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