China isn't quite as mean as the Soviet Union, but it's four times bigger (relative to us), and a hell of a lot more economically competent.https://twitter.com/bopinion/status/1050915857445113857 …
Yeah population is a hugely important factor. Hitler's army was better but the Soviets crushed him. The Confederacy had all the experienced officers but the Union ground them down. It's not always decisive but it often tells in the end.
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USSR's economy was never close to ours in size. China's is already bigger in PPP terms and is approaching us in nominal terms. That makes a huge difference. If China chose to spend a USSR-like % of its GDP on its military it would vastly overshadow everyone else.
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Could China beat us in a war today? Depends on the kind of war. Could China beat us in a protracted, Cold War-like struggle, where total spending power matters a lot? I'd say they have a much better chance than the Soviets did of winning that sort of multi-decade contest, yeah.
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1/ This is utterly incoherent. The reason that China has so much more spending power than the soviet union is that, under Deng's influence they have done the OPPOSITE of what the soviets did -- rather than a "cold war-like struggle" they have embraced the global economy
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2/ and free trade. I am struggling to be civil because I find it inexcusable and professionally irresponsible for you as an economist, and professor of economics to be making these claims trying to stir up jingoism against China.
End of conversation
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1/ None of that is right. (1) Hitler was fighting a two front war (2) not at all clear German army was better See Richad Overy, Why the Allies won (3) Union superiority was industrial superiority, not sheer weight of numbers (4) Japan took over much of China despite much smaller
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1) USSR took much higher casualties than Germany but still won because they could afford them. 2) Industrial superiority matters, and China manufacturers more than we do (and the gap increases daily). 3) China fought us to a standstill in Korea at a much lower tech level.
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1/ this is already absurd. China manufactures more buttons than we do. you think that when it comes to military hardware China has greater manufacturing capacity than the US? That is nonsensical. Where is your evidence for that claim? China fought us to a standstill? More
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Buttons?! China produces TEN TIMES the steel we do, hoss. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_steel_production …
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China's industrial output is considerably greater than ours.https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/10-countries-with-the-highest-industrial-outputs-in-the-world.html …
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And if you don't know that China fought us to a standstill in the Korean War, you haven't even read the Wikipedia article for "Korean War"! This discussion is over.
End of conversation
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It did before nukes
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