Quote:
Originally posted by sixzeros
China knows its cool to be quiet and leave the US guessing as what their position is.... Because it gains concessions for them.
Consider the first encounter with Saddam. At the start of the conflict, China was in a state of embargo too, just like Saddam is now, they were in the embargo partly because they are communist but mostly these sanctions were placed on them as a consequence of the human rights violations during the Teinamen Square incident, where innocent protesters were killed, and run over by tanks and shit.
That left China with only 1 export... arms to the middle east. During this time, Saddam and China got very 'chummy'.
And it led Saddam to believe that he had the backing of China when he made his move on Kuwait. But in the 11th hour, the US met with China and agreed to lift the embargos, and sanctions and granted them all sorts of benefits.
So China backed out, and left Saddam high and dry, holding his balls to get raped.
After 4000 odd years of playing war games, nobody is better at it than China, and they owe allegiance to nobody. In fact they'd just as soon hang N.Korea out to dry, and would consider it a masterful stroke of political genius, when they count their booty after all is done.
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Interesting, but I think you are giving China's strategic prowess and long-term vision a bit too much credit. This is the same contry that brought us the "great leap forward" and the "cultural revolution." I agree that China can be unpredictable, ironically even when it's own interest is in consideration.
What makes China dangerous is their leaderships willingness to engage in nationalist
self destructive behavior, in order to maintain political, cultural and economic control.
Imagine Bush or Clinton, with no checks and balances.