John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY GODFREE ROBERTS IN UNZ REVIEW
Does China Outspend US on Defense?
Can We Afford an Arms Race with the World’s Biggest Economy?
https://www.unz.com/article/does-china-outspend-us-on-defense/
What China has achieved over the last forty years or so is simply one of the great miracles of the age.
The country’s total change and rate of change are astonishing.
There is no precedent.
This historically great people has literally gone in that time from something resembling the Middle Ages with the secular religion of communism to ultra-modernity and a hybrid system of governance that leaves the West far behind in its efficiency. China’s handling of the Coronavirus outbreak has been recognized as exemplary. Western governments, paying inadequate attention to what China was doing, are now being hit hard with the same disease China has under control.
Besides having become the world's industrial workshop, China right now has a remarkable rover on the dark side of the moon which cleverly feeds its data to a satellite in lunar orbit. It has already made some new and interesting discoveries about the moon's structure. Chins also is involved in some cutting-edge work in quantum physics, including an encryption application for communications. China’s work in cloning, embryology and virology are world-class.
China has developed hypersonic glide vehicles. It has developed and installed laser weapons on some of its ships. It has developed and installed, on at least one ship, a large railgun.
They have shipyards that can crank out the most ultra-modern ships like sausages. From having virtually no aviation industry, they are now producing planes and drones that are competitive with much of what the West turns out. They have literally rebuilt entire large cities, including massive subway and commuter-rail systems.
And China has three-quarters of the entire world’s high-speed rail systems, and that was achieved in a country which is very mountainous. They are working with a mag-lev train now that will travel about 600 kph. They are building an entire system of modern national airports across the country and are expected to become the world’s largest aviation market shortly.
Yet in some of the comments here, seemingly from angry American backwoodsmen, we can see Trump's exact style of wilful blindness and belief in the fantasy of American superiority and exceptionalism. There are none so blind…
Actually, America’s largest achievement for decades has been in the number of people that it kills in all its wars, interventions, and coups. China has remained at relative peace.
