Does the U.S. actually support the current Chinese gov't?

a reply to: randomspecific

Do you really think it's 'unthinkable'? That the whole of the U.S. Gov't is afraid of China? Some? Perhaps. Others? They'd love the opportunity to tangle with them.

The real deterrent is profit loss, then, the equally vulnerable infrastructure each country is burdened with.

China's is far more exposed to damage than the U.S.'s, from what I can see. If China doesn't get greedy, I believe the U.S. likely favors the status quo over, at best,an uncertain future.

I'm guessing U.S. policy for now is let China be, but let them know we're watching....

en.people.cn...

Beijing has hit back at US criticism of its land reclamation operations around the Nansha Islands in the South China Sea, saying, "No one has the right to instruct China on what to do."
Observers warned that Washington is playing with fire as it has adopted an increasingly high profile over the South China Sea situation in recent months. Last week, China drove off a US navy P-8A surveillance plane that flew near China's Nansha Islands on a reconnaissance mission.

If nothing else is apparent it is that 2 of the biggest powers on the planet are sabre rattling. We all know, that's more than likely all it will be. Still makes me nervous because ultimately someone will want to call someone else's bluff.

a reply to: randomspecific

Nah. If you have children, no matter how dastardly you may be, you don't want them having to drink radioactive water. Anything up to that point, until exotic weapons are produced (or unveiled), would be the US making it very difficult to maintain the Chinese economy.

The US and China have a symbiotic relationship with each other. One can't exist (at the current state) without the other also existing in the current state.

Likewise, the US and China have a different relationship with the world as a whole. Without one, the other falls, and that just brings down the whole house of cards that is the global economy.

So, it's a chess game. China will try and get away with as much as it can without fully angering the world, just as the US does. For now, the islands are just territory, with the only resource being location. China sees it as their territory, the world sees it as international waters. If they started using them for oil, then I think you'd see the world change it's tune a bit, and step up the rhetoric.

a reply to: Gazrok

The only thing I'd add to the symbiotic relationship aspect is developing that oil stabilizes China's security and financial stress.

Therefore, that is a good thing for that 'symbiotic relationship'. Hence, after the rhetoric, China is allowed, even encouraged, by the U.S. to go ahead and develop it....all the while, for the benefit of it's neighboring allies, protesting publically against it.

That's the premise of the thread. Possible?