China and Hostility
There are nations where many people, thanks to their own news media and government and in some cases religion, hate other countries.
(This largely works in Saudi Arabia, for example, but is much less effective in Iran, where the US has a higher approval rating than you'd expect.)
I don't think of China as having "hostility" in the sense of a fierce hatred. The Chinese people, in general, are open and outgoing and, allowing for cultural differences, can be good trade partners.
But the Communist regime of China is implacably determined to be the world power and to subjugate all others. It's not that they "hate" us -- it's nothing at all like the jihadist problem, which they suffer from too.
Instead, it seems to me from long observation that they see this as a game, and every weakness of ours a strategic advantage to them.
They intend to win. And they've made it clear that while they would find a nuclear war unfortunate, they'd still win it.
They've been testing us, over and over again. They've flown fighters and bombers over our air carrier groups, unchallenged. They've surfaced attack subs inside our carriers' defense perimeters, unchallenged. Both are embarrassing to us, but the problem is of course larger than that.
They watched when the US government said that a missile launch by North Korea was "unacceptable" -- and North Korea did it anyway, which we accepted exactly two years ago.
China has had various military leaders make extremely provocative statements to see how we react.
We react mildly.
They are pleased.
===|==============/ Level Head
(This largely works in Saudi Arabia, for example, but is much less effective in Iran, where the US has a higher approval rating than you'd expect.)
I don't think of China as having "hostility" in the sense of a fierce hatred. The Chinese people, in general, are open and outgoing and, allowing for cultural differences, can be good trade partners.
But the Communist regime of China is implacably determined to be the world power and to subjugate all others. It's not that they "hate" us -- it's nothing at all like the jihadist problem, which they suffer from too.
Instead, it seems to me from long observation that they see this as a game, and every weakness of ours a strategic advantage to them.
They intend to win. And they've made it clear that while they would find a nuclear war unfortunate, they'd still win it.
They've been testing us, over and over again. They've flown fighters and bombers over our air carrier groups, unchallenged. They've surfaced attack subs inside our carriers' defense perimeters, unchallenged. Both are embarrassing to us, but the problem is of course larger than that.
They watched when the US government said that a missile launch by North Korea was "unacceptable" -- and North Korea did it anyway, which we accepted exactly two years ago.
China has had various military leaders make extremely provocative statements to see how we react.
We react mildly.
They are pleased.
===|==============/ Level Head