John Prins wrote:
the Signless wrote:
Japan is an island nation that has a tiny population compared to China. It has limited resources and would only be able to attack from certain directions, making things like missile defense systems possible. A United States backed Korea puts the world's superpower, with all the resources, manpower, and technology the West has to offer, right next to you connected by a land border. Military bases in South Korea are already a massive worry in China and the deployment of THAAD has caused a lot of coverage within the Chinese press. How are the two situations comparable?
Uh, the Russians have been staring at this exact scenario (NATO) for 60+ years and basically nothing has come of it. Nobody's invading China, just like nobody is invading Russia. I'm not sure how much longer the US and Japan and S.Korea are going to risk a nuclear armed N.Korea, though. If China wants their precious buffer state, they could maybe ensure it's not crazypants?
I'd also question the logic that a US allied Japan is somehow less threatening than a US allied Korea. I mean, maybe if it were still 1950, the logic of "we can't let the US establish a foothold on Korea" would make sense, but well we've kind of been there for awhile now... N. Korea is the worst buffer state in the world. N. Korea has an even lower population than Japan, and is even smaller, and doesn't even have Gundam statues in the streets! The place has an army straight out of the late 40s! Basically my point is that backing N. Korea, really offers China nothing of real value but being able to say "we back N. Korea" and come on. That's kind of a joke at this point. China doesn't back N. Korea. It's a political facade that literally cuts off the nose to spite the face. N. Korea is realistically as threatening to China once nuclear armed as it is to S. Korea, Japan, or the US.
