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Originally Posted by loTEK911
From looking at Undertoads link, Owning an aircraft carrier seems a verry exclusive club. Out of 9 nations only 3 have more then 1.
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An aircraft carrier is a massive expense. It has very limited functions. Is mostly about show.
The PLA took a slap in the face when Clinton stopped their aggressive behavior by sailing to carriers through the straits of Formosa. A carrier can slap the face of a nearby land force. And if the Chinese attacked it, well, even the PLA understood a negative political problem that creates.
Therefore the PLA decided it needed to learn technology. That military strength by numbers alone does not make it. Suddenly generals who said so were in power. And so the PLA has been in a 15 year program of becoming a technologically informed power.
China has an aircraft carrier under construction. It may appear in two years. But far more serious is the threat to all carrier fleets. Submarines and naval attack missiles. Missiles such as carried by the Kursk. And Exocet - an oldest technology – are still major threats. Carriers are limited pieces. Were completely useless in Desert Storm. Had almost no useful functions in Mission Accomplished. Mostly due to inferior planes, excessive costs, and a platform that can barely defend it self.
Appreciate what the Palins, Limbaughs, O’Donnels, and Cheneys in China are saying. China has already declared oceans down to Malaysia and out to lower Japanese island as property of China. Everyone here should already know about the Spratly, Parcel, and Senkaku/ Diaoyu islands. If you don’t, you know virtually nothing about China in an international world. These are focal points that define one major power block in China.
Which China is saying what? The Americans were told that China would take care of the Western Pacific. That America can have the eastern Pacific. So Vietnam is setting up to become a naval repair facility for the US Navy. There are consequences when one is more interested in their ego (we must be #1) rather than concentrating on things that make one #1 (we will innovate).
You see these same problems in business. Businesses who must be #1 - screw everyone else (AIG, GM) only did massive harm to themselves and all other Americans. Business that strived to innovate and grow into new markets (HP, Intel, the new attitude in Ford) are what make an economy, people, and the world a productive and peaceful place.
Unfortunately the PLA attitude is about reestablishing a Chinese domination over their rightful empire. Not all of China is saying that. But that is the same attitude that made so many American allies turn less friendly to America in the 2000s.
It certainly did not help when enemies of America in America became extremists. When China tried to buy an oil company - Unocal. Patriotic (educated) Americans knew this deal was proper and necessary. China that is growing needed the company. America who needed the money should have sold IF Americans are into business; not egos. These American extremists were telling China that only first class countries can own oil companies. IOW American extremists only empowered Chinese extremists. That 'not making the sale' disaster created by American howling will have consequences even 20 years later.
Do we decide to empower their extremists? Or empower Chinese who would do business - grow their nation into a member of the world?