The West should not easily relinquish its control of the waves. Otherwise, how long will it be before we see a Chinese aircraft carrier in the Thames?The question is a bit of a headline grabber, but the argument is sound*. Britain and the West face a difficult choice: Either we maintain our strength and shoulder our burden as the world's leaders and peacekeepers or we will see power shift Eastwards. This won't be a neat transition where the only casualty will be our pride. The price will be a world plunged into chaos and despotism.
We can't just ride out the bloody tide either. Unlike the Imperial Chinese, we won't have the luxury of withdrawing within our borders to quietly rot for a few centuries. We'll see the East pounding on our gates in a way not seen since the days of Atilla the Hun.
* For the most part, though I don't see the rise of the Celestials as inevitable or even likely. My prediction is that we'll see Red China imploding in the next ten years in a way that will make Yugoslavia look like an orderly bankruptcy.
3 comments:
Looking at the actual force structure of the "new" PLAN I'm "forced" to conclude that it isn't a blue-water fleet. Mostly frigates and patrol gun/missile boats, a few boomers with associated SSNs, and at most one flattop without adequate escorts.
As Clancy's Law says, a serious blue-water navy needs fleet oilers, which they don't have and aren't building AFAIK. What they have is a littoral-warfare/coast defense/ASW force, with a single capital ship mainly for prestige displays.
I suspect the boomers are because it's dawned on them that ICBMs on land are dead meat to a first strike today. Russia came to the same conclusion a while back, which is why they are building a new generation of SSBNs. (Their most likely targets? Each other.)
As for their carrier, if it shows up anywhere to trail its coat with no support assets, I predict it will have a short but exciting life. Ending when the Harpoons and Tomahawks arrive.
cheers
eon
I agree. The threat isn't the PLAN, but the West's resolve. Red China, like the Jihadists, will never defeat the West, but the civilised world can talk itself into surrender.
Defeatism is our real enemy.
There are only two kinds of ships.
Submarines and targets.
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