How are China & Russia threats?

Question

I'm a bit of an idiot in Military Topics so excuse me for talking,

I keep reading that the US is worried about China & Russia and such but at the same time I read how the US Military is 50x more advanced than both.

In fact It's been said the US Military was fare more superior than the soviets in the 70s & 80s.

So what's the Issue?
If China or Russia start a war , The US can defeat them

Answer 1

China and Russia are rivals - they could be threats if the political situation is right, but they could also be partners, and even both at the same time. They have their own interests and goals, but they're not would-be conquerors out to cover the world in their flag - they're Bismarck, not Hitler, in a world where military power is much less important than economic power.



It should also be noted that China and Russia are not allies - they're rivals to each other, with a history of bad blood dating back to before Peter the Great, but whose interests can align. Because they're both major countries with nuclear weapons and a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, they often get lumped together, but that's fallacious and even a dangerous assumption - they both support Westphalian sovereignty as opposed to a more internationalist view, but beyond that their international efforts are more opposed than aligned.



States are primarily interested in two things - security and prosperity. War can be a threat to both - one can lose a war, with all the damages to security that would entail (including the security of the government, which could face unrest and revolt from the angry populace), and war is costly and the rewards may not be worth the cost (in fact, that seems to be rather common). Given a world paradigm where outright conquest is no longer acceptable (and extremely dangerous for the conqueror), war between states is now something to see as uncommon and unlikely - at least major states.

Answer 2

EVERYONE is a threat. Seriously.



The military does not evaluate other nations based upon what we think they might do, they evaluate them based upon what they COULD do to the USA if they decided to do it.



in the 1920s the Great Britain and the British Empire was considered the biggest threat. All those nations, all those people and resources, the massive British Navy and Canada just to the North of the USA all added together made them the biggest threat. So we had a plan to deal with that should it come true. (Starting by invading Canada.) The second biggest threat was the rapidly growing Japanese Military. We had a plan to fight them too. We never needed the plan to fight the British but we did use the plan we had in place to fight the Japanese.



Today we look around and what nations could cause us the most harm? Russia and China. We have a plan to deal with just Russia, a plan to deal with just China and a plan to deal with both of them at the same time. There are also variations of the plan such as a low level war once again like Korea, Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan or a naval war where all the fighting takes place at sea. Worst case is a full scale nuclear war.



As far as your last comment, the USA has been cutting back on its military capabilities since the Gulf War. We have fewer ships than we had in 1917, we are retiring ten and only building five a year so the Navy is continuing to get smaller. The average age of the air fleet is 25 years old with some planes 50 years old. We have less than 100 B52 bombers, around 60 B1 bombers and 19 B2 bombers. We are retiring a lot of fighter jets. We got less than 200 F22 fighters to replace over 1000 F15s. We are planning on getting somewhere around 2400 F35s to replace all kinds of different planes in three branches of service. Not enough for a one for one replacement. AND we are retiring planes before the replacements have arrived. We have NO/NONE/NADA fighters in development so the F22 and F35 are going to be the last new fighters for decades. We have cut back on our nuclear forces under SALT and START treaties with the Russians. That would be great if all we had to worry about is Russia but what about China? They could have thousands of warheads stored in their tunnels that we do not know about. Lastly, we have over invested in aircraft carriers. They only have an effective combat range of 600 miles so can be taken out by anti-ship missiles with ranges greater than that. What we need are subs. Nimitz himself said after WW TWO the most important weapon in the war was the submarines (Not the carriers.)



What I think you are going to see is China moving on the islands under dispute with Japan, Philippines and Vietnam. And it is going to try to take its rogue state of Taiwan back under direct control. The USA would bet nuts to get into a war over it because it can not fight a close in war with China. the USA will have to try diplomatic tactics and that will let the world know that China is #1...

Answer 3

Neither Russia or China want a war with the US simply because of their economics.



Whether China and the US like it or not they have accepted they need to work together as we see off the coast of Somalia where there is a multi-national armada of Naval ships protecting the trade lanes for the world.

Chetak

Answer 4

The biggest threat the USA faces is the debt.

In terms of conventional firepower- the US has the edge on Russia and China right now.

however China owns a lot of the US debt and provided they are able to switch their ecconomy to domestic consumption could dump our bonds and force the US into a cycle of hyper inflation.

If we figured out how to pay the debt with out inflation- the Chinese would be able to build up a stronger conventional force.

The Russians and Chinese don't have much desire for a war-

they are making to much money from trade.

The Russians sell oil the Chinese everything else.

Answer 5

"If China or Russia start a war , The US can defeat them "

Not easily. Or cheaply, especially considering the Russians will go nuclear quickly.



And just because we can beat them doesn't mean they don't present a threat; Japan knew it would probably lose a war with the United States when it bombed Pearl Harbor; it still did.

Answer 6

Because you keep reading fear mongering periodicals and listening to "for profit" news sources that sensationalize and over exaggerate facts in their effort to attract viewers/readers.



More Viewers = Better Ratings

Better Ratings = More Advertising

More Advertising = More $$$$



The issue is not always China, Russia or the US. (although as independent and sovereign Nations with different Political Ideologies there are bound to be tensions once in a while, but they usually work themselves out). The problem is with the Media chasing the almighty $$$$ and inflating/over exaggerating the situation for their own political agenda and financial gain. (and yes Fox News and MSNBC, I am pointing at you)...

Answer 7

50 x more advanced ? keep dreaming.



China and Russia are not threatening anybody in the USA, in fact it was basically the Russians who prevented the USA going gung ho into Syria and the USA and the Russians are currently working together helping negotiate peace talks there.



They are not threats to you, just paranoid USA kids seem to think the whole world wants to attack them

Answer 8

Its not as simple as that. Until something kicks off its hard to say how things would pan out. Chinas manpower is huge and the fact it is an atheist state is scary to me personally