China climbs the moutain

 

The rise of China is going to be the geopolitical story of this century, maybe THE story of this century.  It has been relentless, unapologetic, and historically almost unprecedented in its speed.  For a country that is supposedly communist, it has adapted to capitalism remarkably well..

China has its issues, particularly with a huge population that will inevitably age.  That, however, is not a problem at this moment.  Right now, China has penetrated its main rival, the United States, in many areas and has brought the world's largest country, Russia, into a formal alliance.

China has been on the top of the international heap for most of its existence. We have lived in in an era where China has not been the most powerful nation on the planet, which is a bit of an anomaly.   

It seems that China has decided to fix that.

China's recent rise is powered by the memory of humiliation visited upon the Celestial Kingdoms by Western powers.  Apparently this was more galling than the Mongol conquest. Nonetheless, after retaking Hong Kong and Macau, China feels that Taiwan is next.  The US alliance with the offshore island, a remnant of Nationalist China and unfinished business from the Chinese civil war in 1949. 

China has set a target date of 2049 to become the world's more powerful nation.  With an economy that seems primed to over take the US by 2023 and a navy that is growth seeming exponentially, it might achieve its goal earlier that that.   

With the US in the middle of internal turmoil and what seems to be a weakening will, China will probe out into the South China Sea and use that to break out into the Pacific toward what is called the Second Island Chain.  As you have probably guessed, the First Island Chain is Taiwan.

There are some interesting events on the horizon.