New Coalition of NationsBoard

The Tapatian Baseball League is starting soon! I'll be posting about it in the relevant factbook, dispatches with updates and possibly on the forums as well if you want to follow along.

46566 wrote:

I think it's more of a economic cold war if anything. I remember hearing a few years ago(could be wrong and probably is) that most of the interior is still not fully industrialized as the port regions. I think that would be a huge problem for the US and the rest of the world.

Unlike China the USSR didn't have a huge home market for goods like China does. The warsaw pact nation's didn't boost the Russian trade that much. While more helpful economically than some Chinese trading partners (North Korea and mongolia) about the only thing stopping the fully industrialized china would be resources and Russia and Iran willing to ship them oil or already having a pipeline to them allows China dictate the global trade.
The size of China not just helps economically but military wise. I doubt no single could single handily hurt China's trade or real power economic wise. While not as militarily advanced as some other nations it could afford to lose naval battles and some occupation as conventional occupation would be next to impossible with a low amount of troops.

China is much weaker/vulnerable than most people believe. True it is much stronger than most of the world, but only “systematically”. By that, I mean it’s powerful because it is presently participating in global institutions and has active trade with the rest of the world. The moment the US and China get into a shooting conflict is the moment that participation and trade ends.

A few vulnerabilities:

• Most investment which also includes lots of transfer of Intellectual property is from the West to China. That investment, most of which runs through the US financial system will likely be prohibited, thus cutting it off. Other sanctions will likely prohibit Chinese investment outside China, meaning no new markets, no new foreign revenue sources. With the tech transfers it would need to rely on its own innovation in a system that represses innovative thought. Good luck with that. lol.

• China holds LOTS of US debt. However, that debt is US sovereign debt, meaning issued under US laws and any disputes over it adjudicated in US courts, under US laws. Further, the US via sanctions, can instantly prohibit any transactions of US debt instruments (bonds, treasury bills, etc) held by the Chinese. Again, considering that all US debt runs through the US financial system, especially when you want to cash it in when it matures, means its worthless unless the US govt says it has value.

• Americans hold nearly a trillion dollars in Chinese Imperial debt which the Chinese Communist have refused to recognize. However, the communists also insists on being the “successor state” to Imperial China — thus all the land grabbing around it, Tibet, Aksai Chin, etc. If they can insist on reclaiming all the territory Imperial China once ruled, it can also assume responsibilities for all the outstanding debts of the imperial government they overthrew and now insist on restoring in all aspects except its type of politics. Basically, two can play “the debt game.”

• While China now has a large and (on paper) strong military, it does not have the experience, expertise, nor the overall diverse capabilities of the US military, which while “stressed” has been in constant operational mode and thus experienced at combat, for several decades now. Americans know how to fight wars, the Chinese last major conflict was against Vietnam (after the Vietnam War involving the US) and they lost. They recently got into a brush up with India, and apparently got their asses kicked in the Himalayas. Although they managed some more minir land grabs in the process, the Indians did also and apparently got the better strategic positions vis-a-vis China. (India lost 20 troops, China is believed to have lost double if not more that number, in a surprise operation launched by China. Eek! Not good operational stats.) The Chinese navy, the largest in the world, is also not that experienced. China has traditionally been a land power and ignored the sea. But that changed only very, very recently. Still, with lots of ships, it mostly operates as a “green sea” fleet as opposed to a “blue sea” fleet. Meaning it keeps most of its navy tightly hugging the Chinese coast. They believe this means overwhelming any navy in that region. Of course it also means US long range precision weapons dont have to look far or wide for targets. The South China and East China seas will likely become Chinese naval graveyards.

• China cant attack American assets in or near Asia without also attacking another country. US forces in Asia likely to face Chinese aggression are in S Korea and Japan. (Guam, the other major spot, is US territory and so most likely to be attacked.) Attacking US forces in either nation would immdiately invoke defense treaties with those nations. And well, then China is facing US, S Korean, and Japanese forces. (Assume N Korea jumps in to distract S Korea, you still have China vs US plus Japan. And that’s not counting on very friendly US allies like the UK and Australia jumping in on the US side.)

• No one is exactly sure what would happen inside China politically if war broke out and it looked like China was losing or if it got hit hard on its mainland. (As you said, most of “developed” China is on its eastern coast, easy targets for US naval and air forces.) They may very well find themselves fighting a civil uprising in the middle of open conflict with the US.
  

Surprise map stream today @1400 CST! Don't miss out this time sillies!

Nedea wrote:

Surprise map stream today @1400 CST! Don't miss out this time sillies!

Where's the stream?

Well, those of you who were tuning in, apparently my internet just died. Stream is delayed until I can figure this out. Hopefully it just comes back online

I just got on.

46566 wrote:

I hope your internet gets fixed and there's nothing you need internet for while it's down.

Like reading this message.

46566 wrote:

I hope your internet gets fixed and there's nothing you need internet for while it's down.

Athretvari wrote:

Like reading this message.

46566 wrote:

Well I figured he was able to type and send a message probably through phone data or whatever. I was thinking more of having to do a big thing over the internet type of thing where PC internet access would be great.

lol

So how's everyone been? I've been busy with work and life. Gonna be more active. Just scrolled through like 3 months of RMB. Gonna poke through the RP now.

Moarfall wrote:

So how's everyone been? I've been busy with work and life. Gonna be more active. Just scrolled through like 3 months of RMB. Gonna poke through the RP now.

Hopefully things have calmed down a bit for you. Welcome back even though you never left.

I was thinking if we do sports rps how would people want to do the scores? A agreement between each person or use the D20 roll on the discord server? Basically the latter option is using the numbers as a outcome to base our rp off of? I could be playing someone in soccer and on the discord roll I roll a 7 and they roll a 13. So we write a report of a horrible defensive game were 20 goals were scored. Or it could be simply higher number wins and the bigger the gap then the more lopsided the victory is.

46566Nedea

There's some software that will do that.