[conspire] (OT) geopolitics

[Syeed Ali]

On Mon, 1 May 2023 05:17:35 +0000 (UTC)
"paulz at ieee.org" <paulz at ieee.org> wrote:

> China is willing to wait as long as necessary for an opportunity.

True.  They may be weak in lots of places, but they think decades ahead.


> For years there was international discussion about some tiny islands
> in the South China Sea.  Then one day, a fleet of Chinese ships
> arrived and started dredging, building a runway and other military
> facilities.  Before anyone else could respond, they had a permanent
> base on what was previously a reef that was barely above water at
> high tide.

This was not a fast process until the "non military" facilities were
put in (e.g. runway) and then suddenly the region was militarized. They
also harass (sometimes nudge, and nearly ram) fishing boats and
regularly press against or cross water borders.

They are also a major manufacturer of maps people use globally, and
they are edited to pretend China owns more water than they actually do.

See also "the Taiwan region of China", and "Asian".

There are land equivalents, the most interesting being neutral/Indian
lands they walked in, had a literal club fight [1], and rapidly
militarized as soon as they could get that foothold.



----

[1]  I guess there were some requirements that they couldn't use real
arms, maybe because it would be too close to an act of war.