Australian military fears over Timor link to China

[Chinese-Dragon]

We don't band together against Australia because it's not personal, it's business. If we only do business with people who like us, we'd be America. It doesn't matter if they're ignorant racists, it doesn't matter if they look down on us, we are there to buy natural resources not to get them to like us.

I agree, it's just business.

Australia is the best place to get Uranium as well... if they sell it, then we will buy it. It's a great source of coal too, and a great place to send University students so they can pick up academic skills.

I am well aware of the racism that exists in Australia, but I'm not going to tar all Australians with the same brush. There are good and bad Australians, just like anyone else.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Japan (neutered by two nukes) and Korea (Christinian fanatics burning down their own Buddhist temple in favor of a colonialist religion ) are pretty much dogs of the Western countries.

Although I am not anti-Japanese I think most Asian countries today would want Japan (even most Japanese) to stay this way. Despite the fact that Japan consolidated U.S. military influence in the Far East as long as America is around it can't just "grow a pair" and start remilitarizing. We all know the results the last time it happened.

 

[asianamerican]

Although I am not anti-Japanese I think most Asian countries today would want Japan (even most Japanese) to stay this way. Despite the fact that Japan consolidated U.S. military influence in the Far East as long as America is around it can't just "grow a pair" and start remilitarizing. We all know the results the last time it happened.

I think the samurai culture in Japan is dead. They are too pussified now. They can't even keep white men from running around amok and raping the teenage girls. Although, a neutered Japan certainly buys time for China to grow.

 

[no_name]

A country can be conquered many times and not die because their culture remained more or less intact.

China goes along the thinking of: If you are not my friend, then doing business is better than not doing business.

 

[CardSharp]

A country can be conquered many times and not die because their culture remained more or less intact.

I always think of the historical sponge monster. Whoever has the misfortune of conquering it, get absorbed eventually. It happened with Khitan, the mongols, the manchus, the turks.

 

[TorontoNoctis]

The biggest threat (both militarily and culturally) to Asia is not China, it is the West.

What about Russia? Sino-Soviet split was engineered by the West too, or do you think Russians are "Western dogs" too?

I was thinking of answering a lot of your "points" but smell troll, so going to wait and see .

 

[siegecrossbow]

What about Russia? Sino-Soviet split was engineered by the West too, or do you think Russians are "Western dogs" too?

I was thinking of answering a lot of your "points" but smell troll, so going to wait and see .

Russia, despite having been one of China's biggest military threats for the past three centuries it is currently in no shape to confront China. Neither nation, by itself, is strong enough to confront the U.S. by itself and the only way for both nations to maintain their spheres of influence is to join together in a somewhat reluctant pact. It is kind of like the pact between Liu Bei and Sun Quan before the Battle of the Red Cliffs. As long as the United States stays strong Russia and China won't turn on each other.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

I always think of the historical sponge monster. Whoever has the misfortune of conquering it, get absorbed eventually. It happened with Khitan, the mongols, the manchus, the turks.

That's a really good analogy.

The Manchus were swallowed whole by the Han culture.

They were once the rulers of China, but nowadays there are less than 70 people in the ENTIRE world who speak the Manchu language.

Manchu is a Tungusic language spoken in Northeast China; it used to be the language of the Manchu, though now most Manchus speak Mandarin Chinese and there are fewer than 70 native speakers of Manchu out of a total of nearly 10 million ethnic Manchus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchu_language

 

[no_name]

Don't underestimate the power of a well developed cultural system. Just like military or economic influence cultural influence will flow from the well developed towards the wanting. That coupled with size difference means the sophisticated will absorb the uninitiated eventually. So a long cultural/philosophical development history is actually a plus.

Lol sounding like some sort of cultural supremacist but I didn't intend to mean that way.

 

[siegecrossbow]

The discussion regarding cultural integration got me wondering: is it possible for China to assimilate Western nations, cultural wise? The cultural integration thing didn't work very well during the 19th century when European powers barged in. What I propose is a type of fusion oriental/Western culture, not unsimilar to what we see on the Science Fiction show Firefly (of course people are not just gonna be using Chinese curse words).

 

[no_name]

-At that time they were more technologically advanced than the average chinese is.

-The common people in europe have higher living standards.

-People who barged in were not ordinary folks but people who signed on to imperalistic adventures, so in other words they know what they're there for.

-Chinese people at the time are in a more xenophobic phase.

-They did not live there for generations.

-Westerners have more differences in their views in the matter of society vs personal choice

There are also alot of other points.

 

[no_name]

What we can do is to start making a positive influence in people's perception now around the world. America is very good at making her citizens believe in the american dream (which is a good thing for US). There is no reason why china has to limit there. Let us do business around the world for start. Business that benefits both the locals and us.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

What we can do is to start making a positive influence in people's perception now around the world. America is very good at making her citizens believe in the american dream (which is a good thing for US). There is no reason why china has to limit there. Let us do business around the world for start. Business that benefits both the locals and us.

I agree with you.

While we have a lot of "hard power".... I think what we are lacking is "soft power".

We need to do something about that.

There are a lot of commentators in the West who are frightened out of their minds at the prospect of a rising China. We need to exert more soft power in this regard.

 

[siegecrossbow]

I agree with you.

While we have a lot of "hard power".... I think what we are lacking is "soft power".

We need to do something about that.

There are a lot of commentators in the West who are frightened out of their minds at the prospect of a rising China. We need to exert more soft power in this regard.

This is ironic considering that the CCP wants to rise via "soft power" but is still seen as a "hard power abuser" by the West. I think China will still be seen as a menace regardless of how much softpower it exerts since till now no superpower has achieved its status through peace. Whether the Chinese peaceful rise succeeds may determine the super power model for centuries to come.

 

[below_freezing]

soft power - beat the enemy into submission, then throw him some money in exchange for watching a video of the same event.

see: USA in Japan.