China's Wars: Not the Way of the West

Ht tip to Winds of Change for linking to Daniel Starr: For China, Foreign War Is Just A Tool For Domestic Politics.

Read it with Robert Kagan's "The Illusion of 'Managing' China, the Winds of Change post China's Stresses, Goals, Military Buildups... and Futures, Daniel Starr' Six Tools to Keep China from Making Trouble, the links at Simon World's Daily Linklets, Bill Rice's Rising Nationalism Will Be China's Undoing and contemplate Simon's pithy point:

Bill Rice says rising nationalism will be China's undoing and he's asking for thoughts on China's short and long term diplomatic goals. I can give you the simple answer: all their diplomacy is aimed at keeping the CCP in power. To do that they need a growing economy with access to markets and resources, rising living standards, spreading wealth and a dash of nationalism now that Chinese Communism doesn't mean anything any more.

All good stuff. And remember that somewhere there's a US military planner whose job it is to wory about the "worst case" scenario and draw up plans accordingly. And that soomeone has to take those plans and decide how to put in place systems to effectuate them should it become necessary. And the "other guys" are doing the same thing. Move and countermove. keeping options open.