Evil Genius

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/28cfe55a-f4a7- ... 511c8.html

China is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the US if it is attacked by Washington during a confrontation over Taiwan, a Chinese general said on Thursday.

“If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons,” said General Zhu Chenghu.

Gen Zhu was speaking at a function for foreign journalists organised, in part, by the Chinese government. He added that China's definition of its territory included warships and aircraft.

Better clench your butt-holes shut, this could get messy.

*looks at Southpaw* You still have room in that fallout shelter?

god damnit...like i need this...you think they would hit chicago like 3rd or 4th? gotta get my parents moved to souther indiana as fast as possible i guess...I just cant picture this being a threat they are willing to follow through on. I know China gets its panties in a bunch over taiwan...but to actually start a nuclear war over it...

Ah, the vaunted "You bomb us, we bomb you" mentality...

I still don't completely understand China's obsession over a small country like Taiwan...

Thankfully he isn't a representative.

yep he's just some guy.... He can't make any decisions about nuclear warfare.

Load of crap. China's not launching anytime soon - this is the typical hard line stance you see in lots of ideological governments that generally dislike the US. China's nuclear stance has never been one really favoring a first strike, certainly not a strategic one.

China just wants us to stay the hell out of Taiwan. They make threats like this because they (rightly) assume that we don't give that much of a crap about Taiwan. We went to war over Vietnam, we fought Chinese troops over Korea. If we really cared about Taiwan we'd have implemented a two China policy decades ago.

This is a political game -- nothing more. If China really wants to rock the boat they'll float their currency. THAT will get the US's attention a hell of a lot faster than empty threats about nuclear strikes.

Killfile wrote:If China really wants to rock the boat they'll float their currency. THAT will get the US's attention a hell of a lot faster than empty threats about nuclear strikes.

Elaborate on this part, "float their currency."

China, if im not mistaken, has been gaining a lot of economic power, but not to upset the the world (US) it has been implementing plans to keep its currency down so as to continue friendlier relations. how was that?

Elaborate on this part, "float their currency."

China's currency, the yuan, has been sold by the Chinese government at a fixed rate since the mid 1990s. The Yuan is surely undervalued on the world market, and floating it would allow the Yuan to rise meteorically against the dollar. Thus would increase the cost of Chinese imports in the US, and shrink the US trade deficit -- at least in the short term.

But the long term consequences of a Chinese float are worrisome. First off, if Chinese imports become expensive in the US - the prices of almost everything goes up. As China's currency becomes more valuable vs the dollar though - the buying power of the Yuan on the world market goes up. A more powerful yuan makes it easier for China to buy up oil -- which is bad for the US because there isn't enough of it to go around right now anyway.

A floating yuan also means that the value of US treasury bonds bought up by China now also float vs the Yuan, which will force China to start treating those bonds as a commodity. China owns a lot of these - and their selling them on the open market can mean bad things for the US economy.

China is also involved in the world gold market in that the Yuan is tied to Gold at a low rate -- allowing the purchase of gold through the purchase of Yuan. Floating the Yuan would drive the price of gold skyward, devaluing the US currency massively and creating hyper-inflation.

In short - a float of Chinese currency markets could seriously harm the long term economic futures of the United States. If China wants to scare us and scare us good - all they have to do is threaten a general float.

This is -=not=- the same thing as just floating their currency vs the US currency and leaving everything else alone. That would be good for us -- a general float would be catastrophic.

I still don't grasp the meaning of the term, "float" but I'm guessing it's an increased value to their currency? The meaning of the term "float" still evades me.

Artezul wrote:I still don't grasp the meaning of the term, "float" but I'm guessing it's an increased value to their currency? The meaning of the term "float" still evades me.

These numbers are made up -- but the theory stands:

China's currency is set at a fixed exchange rate against the dollar. Lets say the Chinese government is willing to sell you 1 Yuan for 0.50 Dollars. That means the Yuan is worth $0.50 and the dollar is worth 2 Yuan. Since China is a command economy, the government sets the price of everything -- including what it's willing to buy and sell Yuan for. China's government has decided the Yuan is (for our example) worth $0.50 cents -- and thus that's what it sells it for. In the world of political economies - this is referred to as having the currency "pegged" to the dollar.

The Euro is set at a variable exchange rate against the dollar. That means that lots of people buy and sell Euros for dollars every day and that the price of a Euro is determined by how many people are buying Euros vs how many people are selling them. More sellers than buyers drives the price down, more buyers than sellers drives the price up. We thus say that the Euro "floats" against the dollar.

HTH!

okay so float means that you put up the currency (yuan) up for sale against a different country's currency (dollar)? wouldn't it be harmful to china if the US forces out american investment over there? i sorta doubt it because if their economic power rises then they could probably do it on their own or seek investment from other willing countries...my knowledge is limited here

Just nuke the whales, not us.

China challenging the US was bound to happen sooner or later. They are second place when it comes to being a superpower, and this action might be showing how eager the Chinese government is to become number 1.
Edit: I meant to say that China is a superpower, but second to the leading superpower, the United States.

Wow, im in San Diego. And to tell you the truth it scares the shit outa me. With miramar base here and shit.

Haha, you all will die. - Just a bad joke.

I don't know what to say, it doesn't affect me directly. But even when it does, everyone has to die sooner or later. And we small people couldn't do anything at all.

I think I will get heavily flamed for this.

THANK GOD!!!

I live in CANADA. XD

...well i've already submitted to the fact that a lot of good stuff comes out of canada

I live pretty close to DC too as I think of it. A problem like this has to come up on my last high school year? I'm not even in a out of state college yet. But I really don't care if China wants to be a super power then it would be a Russia against China stuggle. But not to diss anyone but Russia can't win a war nowadays. They lost to Japan which is a island.....

......China IS a superpower. And from what i hear, soon they will be THE superpower. My old middle school teacher used to say,"dont be afraid of chineese with nukes, be afraid of chineese with cell phones". The more industrialized they get, the more powerfull they get.

thats why WE should nuke them first...im just hoping that thought process doesnt pop into anyone's head out in DC...

MrFelony wrote:thats why WE should nuke them first...im just hoping that thought process doesnt pop into anyone's head out in DC...

3rd World War establishment.
Maybe that would be the last World War the world would see.

http://www.spikedhumor.com/Article.aspx?id=89

yea... so it'll be like that