North Korea, War, and Missile Defense

To some extent it depends on what you consider an "attack". For instance they have occupied islands that clearly belong to others under international law. In some cases shots have been exchanged. If you are looking a full scale conflicts then Tibet, India, USSR, and Vietnam are the big ones if you don't want to go back as far as the Korean war.

 

I'm aware of the various border altercations between India and Tibet, and I know some about the Sino-Vietnamese war, I had no clue China got into any kind of conflict with Russia, I'll have to look into that. Thank you lwd.

 

China's a weird one. I don't think they want millions streaming over their border. They have the biggest debt per head of population anywhere in the world right now. On the other hand they seemingly have just about eradicated poverty, are streets ahead in renewable technology, but are probably still harvesting organs from death row prisoners. People are being abducted from Hong Kong and UK diplomats are in a tussle about getting Human Rights observers into Hong Kong at the moment. Their control over the population is limitless in terms of internet control. I would love to see China but could never live there. The opium crisis the British were involved in was embarrassing, we didn't half exploit them and they did a power of building in Europe to get it back on its feet after WW1 in terms of labour power. They have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies around the world, not least here in the UK. They are stripping Africa of its mineral resources and CAC may correct me, but a lot of mining in Australia ends up heading there too. One to watch especially when the finances fail. It will be a domino affect around the world. I was hopeful Xi Ping Pong was going to be a moderator, but just another dictator at the end of the day (yes, I do know that's not his name)

 

The one thing I'm glad you pointed out Mutley is China's economic situation. The U.S and a lot of other European countries are reaching (in my pure opinion) a turning point in how they handle their economies. The U.S is printing money it doesn't have, and the national debt will eventually cause a collapse similar to that if not worse than the Great Depression worldwide. Countries like Greece, Spain, and others are already seeing the effects of their bad economic habits, it's only a matter of time I believe before the U.S and basically every other country experiences similar consequences. I believe whoever recovers first in a worldwide economic crisis will be the dominant force in the World. I might be totally wrong, but I think the economic situation is worth paying more attention to than anything else, if we ignore it, were screwing ourselves and future generations potentially for decades.

 

Australia should be ok...we staved off the GFC...if the shite hits the fan we can be self sufficient while the rest of the world gets its shite together...refugees will be our problem...but they have a long boat trip,if they want to bypass the North...my advice to,other countries is rely less on didgits on paper and more on real things you can hold...not easy for some countries...and Mutley, yes Australia has sold many farms and cattle stations and ports to China...we sell coal, steel, natural gas to the world...but we have a limit on foreign ownership...and no matter who owns what, they can’t take it with them...if the shite hits the fan, it all stays in Australia...

 

Undoubtedly the best part of being an Island.............and having just about every essential needed to be self sufficient . The U.S could be and is in some ways self sufficient as well, but we rely a lot on trade for our income, which in an economic crisis is not good.

 

And 380million people are hard to feed...

 

You'd be lucky to get an actual coup, but you'd blow up the power structure as surely as if you dropped a bomb in the quarterly comrades meeting. The Chinese might be forced to step in, but if not any disruption would be surely be a positive thing. It's just a half-way measure short of open war.

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I think the U.S would get involved if they saw that a coup was underway to help unify North and South, I think China would make sure the U.S doesn't overstep the process and makes sure they stay far away from their borders.

 

The South Koreans while emotionally wishing to reunify intellectually realize that it would be very expensive and a source of irritation to China as well (one of if not their most important trading partner). The US has also been encouraging China to solve the problem. As long as China gives at least token independence to North Korea no one in the neighborhood (with the possible exception of Russia) is going to get too upset. However China is also wary of it becoming another huge resource sink. If they do step in they'll likely want help in the form of contributions of resources and cash which further suggest that they won't take a route that would alienate the regional powers or the bigger financial ones.

 

The Re-unification of East and West Germany I think is a great example to learn from, initially West Germans weren't all that happy with the unification because of the Economic problems, but now Germany is a economic and military powerhouse in Europe. The Circumstance between Germany and Korea are pretty different, but I have a feeling that a re-unification would benefit all parties in the long run. Especially the depressed, starving, and oppressed North Koreans.

 

Here's an article I find rather interesting. Many of the facts presented will be well known to those who keep up with things but some stuff I wasn't aware of along with some interesting analysis IMO:
China: The Xi Dynasty

 

Very interesting article lwd, thank you for sharing!