Chuffed !m8sJfgzmLE joined in and replied with this 12 hours ago, 10 hours later[^][v]#1,416,123
I'm just thankful I'll be alive when Xi, Putin and and big T have all moved on to wherever bullies of the world stage go when it's finally over. It probably won't get better but there is hope, like buying a lottery ticket or maybe getting a nice parking spot next shopping trip.
> I'm just thankful I'll be alive when Xi, Putin and and big T have all moved on to wherever bullies of the world stage go when it's finally over. It probably won't get better but there is hope, like buying a lottery ticket or maybe getting a nice parking spot next shopping trip.
Xi isn’t as smart as he thinks he is. He’s basically claiming credit for Deng’s legacy. China was a basket case after Mao. Deng put the country on the path to world power.
Anonymous D joined in and replied with this 3 hours ago, 3 hours later, 19 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,416,204
@previous (C)
Idk. I mean obviously I’m American so I’m not pro Chinese or anything, but Xi Jinping’s contribution to China has been building up the Chinese military. China used to only have one aircraft carrier that was built by the Soviet Union and gifted to China by Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union since Ukraine is a poor country so they were sorta doing a big military hot sale "everything must go." (It was before Ukraine became democratic). But under Xi Jinping, China has built two additional aircraft carriers. One was basically just a copy of the Soviet design, the third and is a copy of an American design with an electromagnetic catapult instead of a ramp like the old Soviet design, only it’s not nuclear powered. There are rumors that the next aircraft carrier the type 004 will be nuclear powered and China is planning on building 6 of them by 2035. Currently the United States has 11 aircraft carriers, so that wouldn’t put China equal to us, but they’d be pretty close.
Personally I think it's more about drones now. Like a relatively cheap underwater drone could seriously fuck up any aircraft carrier. They could be mass produced to outnumber anything a aircraft carrier could throw at it, and still be significantly cheaper
Anonymous D double-posted this 3 hours ago, 1 minute later, 19 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,416,207
Of course, yes, underwater drones could sink an aircraft carrier. But the advantage from having an aircraft carrier you can launch drones from that can bomb targets on land still makes it worth building aircraft carriers. Now that nuclear weapons exist, nobody’s going to try to sink an aircraft carrier. The last time a US carrier was sunk in combat was by Japan in WWII.
Anonymous D replied with this 3 hours ago, 2 minutes later, 19 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,416,209
Aircraft carriers are very vulnerable though. But I guess the thing is, rich nations only go to war against nations that are too poor or too militarily weak to defend themselves.
Anonymous D double-posted this 3 hours ago, 1 minute later, 19 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,416,211
@1,416,208 (E)
Midair refueling is a thing, but it’s inefficient because you need to expend fuel to get your fuel in the air and an airplane is a lot smaller than a ship so you can only refuel a smaller number of aircraft. With an aircraft carrier you can put a large number of aircraft in a certain part of the world.
If I’m being honest though, there’s a reason why most countries don’t have many aircraft carriers, they’re kind of a status symbol more than something that’s really necessary.
Anonymous D triple-posted this 3 hours ago, 2 minutes later, 19 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,416,212
The entire thing is honestly a huge waste of money and China will probably wind up doing the same thing America does where they have a bunch of billion dollar weapons for the sake of having a bunch of billion dollar weapons and almost never use them.
Yeah there's something badass about a airfield cruising like a ship. But underwater drones could make the current do some of the work, then I imagine some half-assed solar powerplant floating in the ocean that's close enough just to provide extra range.
Anonymous D replied with this 3 hours ago, 1 minute later, 20 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,416,216
Although, considering what happened in the past when Europeans had superior military capability and technology, I think that basically any non-western country that ever develops their economy to rival the west in a way similar to China will probably also try to build up a large military. Except Japan obviously because they got nuked and we wrote their constitution.
Anonymous D double-posted this 3 hours ago, 2 minutes later, 20 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,416,218
Like if India had China’s economy, I think they’d probably do the same thing if not go even further than China since they have Pakistan and China to worry about at the same time.
Anonymous D triple-posted this 2 hours ago, 1 minute later, 20 hours after the original post[^][v]#1,416,219
I mean, India’s economy is way smaller than China but they have two aircraft carriers. Although India’s economy is growing pretty fast so in 20 or 30 years who knows.