This is a good comparison, though I don't think China will "willingly" disintegrate like the Soviets did...its a lot easier to maintain a military than it is to expand it or invest in new technology/prototypes...what I'm getting at here is that, though a floundering economy may affect china's ability to increase its military power, a "crash in the stock market" or any economic disaster is not going to make the current military disappear...

I don't really think Taiwan is a major concern, and here is why...

You hit a great point there...lack of resources may not hurt the military too much, but it will affect the people (who already have enough problems as it is)...the regions most likely to revolt or simply give up on supporting the PRC (if that's even possible) will not be on the coast, but more inland...these regions will be low priority for garrison, and the communal farming system means the people don't even need the government to continue living...Taiwan isn't going to be able to do much about inland areas...if low morale causes dissent or revolt on the coast where most of the population is, I don't think Taiwan is going to be able to do much there either...its a lot of people, and a lot of land to cover...Taiwan isn't exactly the greatest military power...my feeling is, the Chinese people are going to either revolt or not...Taiwan may fill the power vacuum, but I don't think its going to be the cause of any revolt, and without the support of the people I doubt Taiwan would amount to much more than a convenient naval/air base for the US...it just doesn't have the resources to do much more than clean up after the PRC is severely beaten...

I never really understood this, but it is true...for whatever reason, Russia is severely overshadowed by China and Iran...if I had to guess why, I'd say because Russia is not a new threat...but that's just a guess...

You do a good job

I agree...I understand them focusing on research/prototypes in order to stay on par with or surpass (technologically) the US, but having a large military for...the sake of having a large military?  I don't know...understandably, they have no reason to trust NATO or the US or Japan, and probably not even Russia...but it seems that they'd be better off making the West dependent on them economically instead of militarizing and threatening their diplomatic relationships....honestly, I'd guess their large military (in manpower, at least) is more the result of fear from their own people...a large military, simply by its existence, prevents dissent from turning into revolt...I don't really think a full revolt is in the least bit likely, but then again, paranoia isn't about what's likely, and any totalitarian government is probably paranoid...

Looked at some things about the Taiwanese military...I was under the impression they had focused solely on defending their islands with land forces/defenses and some air support...apparently they are moving to focus more on navy/air force instead of land capabilities...this actually seems like good news since Taiwan would be able to provide great support to other nations in the area should the need arise...

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/economy-and-business/China-to-Sanction-US-Companies-That-Sell-Arms-to-Taiwan---83329797.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35065824/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

I disagree.

Alpha, you never heard of the Chinese Civil War and the Communist takeover of China?  Taiwan started off as the government-in-exile of Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist government when Mao took over mainland China.  The Chi-Coms haven't forgiven Taiwan for being able to escape their thumb, and they probably never will.

Blackhawks? No.

APACHE'S!

Richter {^}

Funny, how we go from "Will America Always be a Superpower" to "Let's have War with China! HELLZ YEA!" to "Obama Talk: What's ur Opinion"...

anyway, Obama's foreign policy, to me, says that he wants the U.S. to step down from it's current responsibilities and just be another big country on the block, not THE big country on the block.  He's saying, in his diplomacy, that "We, as the US don't give a $#*! what you do, just make sure we get our trade goods and you'll be fine".

That's, at least, IMO.

Richter {^}

It's amazing how much wisdom can be found in computer games.....

China is not "closing in" on the U.S.; China is just about up to their first manned moon flight--which the U.S. did in 1969. Big whoop, the Chinese are only forty years behind! They're catching up to where we were, but in that space of time we've pulled even further ahead--we're now at the point where force fields and cloaking devices actually seem possible, and military laser weapons are already in the field (though they're more of a defensive anti-artillery weapon than anything else).

Watch. Two centuries from now we'll build our first Illuminator frigate, and CNN will report that the U.S. has become a bunch of LRF spammers......

Well, given the rapid globalisation of the economy and increasing technology leading to weapons which have greater and greater range, we will all be superpowers soon

China will be the next superpower

This is all wonderful conversation, and a truly fascinating discussion.  I have learned so much, trying to follow all the threads in this conversation.   The greatest question I have is simply this:  when are corporations going to really begin governing directly, openly, and not through the smoke and mirrors of 'governments."  I await that day, because, only then, will the masses of people know who is really is in charge, and only then will they then be able to begin making the corporations accountable for their generally draconian decisions.  "I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half," is still, sadly, closer to the truth, than not.