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Originally posted by dmm:
Can those asking us to lay off China, please explain why China has a standing army of 300 million?
Probably to keep the other 1 billion of their population in line. Just a guess though. I don't think anyone has really asked them.
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As for me, Cyrien's further point about nukes being the only way to stop such an army goes far to explain China's current interest in expanding their stock of ICBMs at a time when Russia and US are both cutting their nukes way back.
Well the Chinese still have WAY less nukes than either of these nations. About as many as an SDI defense system could stop. Which if implemented has brought a promise from the Chinese to increase their own nuclear arsenal to a point where our SDI system couldn't stop it. Such an action would probably prompt many Chinese neighbors to increase or create their own nuclear arms. Specially Pakistan and India. Gee... some of the people I most want to see have large stockpiles of nukes (even ones declared to be for peaceful civilian construction projects). Well. Perhaps if they do have large stockpiles it would stop military conflicts in those regions. No one wants to be nuked after all...