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Originally posted by Magnetonium China actually has a huge demographic problem, more threatening that Russia's actually. You see, Russia is not threatened by lowered population. China, on the other hand, needs more and more food, resources and such to feed and grow itself. If food or economic crisis ensues, Chinese will starve, collapse, will be forced to do something rather extreme. Face it, China has many internal problems as well. You are not seeing the full picture. Russia only needs a massive and perfectly functioning eyes-wide-open nuclear arsenal and its future is set and secure. China will need Russia and other nations to feed itself. It will even try to stab away at the pipelines that feed and make our North American lifestyles possible, bud. China's industry and economy is far from levels that are in Russia, in USA per capita. Imagine when the real growth levels hit, real problems will emerge ...

Once again, China has over 4 000yrs of history. I am almost certain that China can take on Russia. And it might have to in order to feed and grow itself. Also China is copying many techniques in refining and agriculture + defense to put itself up to par with Russia and the US. Plus, Russia has an increasing AIDS epidemic that the government is ignoring. I can see a strong Russia but an even stronger China in the future.

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Originally posted by metalgearsolid Once again, China has over 4 000yrs of history. I am almost certain that China can take on Russia. And it might have to in order to feed and grow itself. Also China is copying many techniques in refining and agriculture + defense to put itself up to par with Russia and the US. Plus, Russia has an increasing AIDS epidemic that the government is ignoring. I can see a strong Russia but an even stronger China in the future.

We'll see, we'll see. Opinions are opinions, we'll see who was right in the next 50 years or so ;-) But China always outnumbered Russia, and was beaten by Russians before and it took them many centuries to finally get a nation together (with help of communists). I think China will suffer a political, economic or a demographical crisis in the next 40 or so years. When their standards of living will expand, they will no longer be able to have the same system. Everything will change. Mostly for the worst. Just think of everything different from today in China, opposites considered, and wonder ...

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It seems rather pointless to argue whether China could beat up Russia because they wouldn't try. China does not and has not engaged in wars with outsiders unless they have felt directly threatened by invasion (thus the reason they helped the North Koreans) or to reclaim land they believe is theirs (Tibet). China has never had imperialist tendencies and would not engage in a military conflict with Russia - but they would lose if they tried.

Going back to the argument about ABMs and security. The US policy to begin implementing ABM security measures was never meant to compromise Russian security, as the limited deployment of ABMs could never stop the number of Russian nuclear weapons, but only those of countries with smaller arsenals (such as China).