Life getting too peaceful?
A new Cold War will fix that!
Proxy battles and a new arms race
The confrontation is growing
between the US and China.
This is China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell
Good news for all of you watching
who thought the world was getting too peaceful.
Steve.
The US State Department has approved
a possible 8 billion dollar fighter jet sale to Taiwan.
Don’t let the headline fool you.
It’s not a single 8-billion-dollar jet,
decked out with leather seats and a solid gold interior.
Which would make it too heavy to fly.
It’s actually up to 66 new aircraft,
most likely Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets,
as well as 75 General Electric engines.
This comes only one month after the State Department
approved a two billion dollar arms sale to Taiwan.
The Trump Administration has proven to be
a staunch supporter of the island nation.
The Chinese Communist Party, of course,
does not consider it a nation.
They claim it belongs to China,
and has threatened to conquer Taiwan by force if necessary.
As of last year, the Chinese military
had 2000 ballistic missiles pointed at Taiwan.
Of course, US military support
has played a big role in preventing an invasion.
And just last week,
Taiwan increased military spending
to the highest it's been in a decade.
Obviously, the Chinese Communist Party
is not happy about the US weapons or arms sales.
The Chinese regime is threatening sanctions on US businesses
if the deal goes through.
Congress has 30 days to object to the deal,
but they’re probably not going to.
Because no matter what differences
Democrats and Republicans may have,
both sides can agree on one thing: standing up to China.
The good news is,
no matter what differences the US and China may have,
both sides can agree on one thing:
We’re in another Cold War!
If you ask China, the US started it.
“If [America’s] outdated views don't change,
if they're forever stuck in a cold war mentality,
I'm afraid to say that Sino-U.S. relations
will continue to face problems.”
And if you ask the US, China started it.
“By their own terms, and what Xi Jinping himself enunciates,
what they’re waging against us is fundamentally a cold war.
A cold war not like we saw during THE Cold War.
But a cold war by definition.
A country that exploits all avenues of power licit and illicit,
public and private,
economic and military,
to undermine the standing of your rival relative
to your own standing without resorting to conflict.”
And if you ask China *and* Russia,
they say the US is starting an arms race.
See, at the beginning of this month,
the US withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces,
or INF, Treaty.
It was an agreement between the US and the Soviet Union
that prohibited flight testing or possessing
intermediate-range ground launched missiles.
But, Russia kept violating it,
and China never signed it,
so it was only the US that was
out those ground launched missiles.
Until this week’s missile test.
That missile was similar to
the nuclear-capable Tomahawk cruise missile.
So even though Russia and China are saying that
the US is starting a new arms race,
it’s more like the US is playing catch up.
Just like our pals in North Korea!
North Korea has fired two projectiles off its eastern coast.
And this time -
it says it's shutting down peace talks with South Korea too.
And you thought the world was too peaceful.
Steve.
And now it’s time for me to answer a question from a fan
who supports the show on the crowd funding website Patreon.
LT Straven asks:
“Does anyone know just how much money
china has flooded into their economy
to try and keep things running smoothly
followed by just how much longer they can continue
to do such acts before things crash?”
That’s a good question.
It’s a little hard to know for sure,
since the entire Chinese economy is very opaque.
I mean, for years, what looked liked
GDP growth and economic production
was local officials building unnecessary infrastructure.
But we do know the number is at least
hundreds of billions of dollars.
At the beginning of the year,
in a single day,
the Chinese central government poured
$83 billion dollars into the economy.
A few months before that it was over 100 billion.
Of course the real question is
what is this going to do to the Chinese economy overall.
These massive injections of cash
can keep the economy going in the short term,
but sooner or later,
there’s going to be a reckoning.
But no one knows quite when that will be.
It seems like the Communist Party’s strategy right now
is to try to wait out the Trump administration,
and hope that a new US president is elected in 2020
who will go back to business as usual.
But like I said,
China is one of the few bipartisan issues right now.
The Chinese regime might find that no matter who wins in 2020,
they lose.
Thanks for your question.
And thanks to everyone watching.
We could not make this show if it weren’t for your support,
either on Patreon,
or just sharing the show with your friends and family.
So thanks for watching China Uncensored.
Once again I’m Chris Chappell,
see you next time.