Comments by "Doncarlo" (@doujinflip) on "China’s navy is tipping the balance" video.

  1. America has the advantage of readily accepting immigrants though, who tend to be even better than native-born due to greater economic motivation, the constant challenge to convince them to naturalize or at least not move back to their homeland, and the ability to select them through the visa process.
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  2. Basically America's roaming grounds are the size of a city compared to the PLA's "backyard", and it wouldn't take that much to block off the few roads leading to it. China relies on imports for food, fuel, and raw materials. Even without a blockade, commercial ships would hesitate to sail in to a live combat zone, and in short order China would begin to literally starve.
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  3. Because unlike before, they couldn't accept their conquerors as Chinese. Manchus and Mongols are recognized as part of China's "five races" (along with Tibetans, Uyghurs, and the Han), whose lands the Qing managed to absorb before Europeans, Japan, and their own decadence began making reversals.
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  4. Polynesians were more masterful navigators, and I'd heard sailors from what is now Indonesia had a wider maritime reach than what imperial China ever achieved. Which makes sense because until the Europeans made inroads through Chinese ports, the various dynasties were almost totally focused on land-based conquests.
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  5. Americans know the expanded connotation of "army", but prefer the terms "military" (from Latin mīles meaning "soldier") and "armed forces" to distinguish the full range as opposed to the land force branch. Also up until recently the PLA really was a primarily ground force army, with subordinate navy, air force, and support branches. It was only in the last 10 years that the PLA reorganized to put each branch on equal footing, and institute theater commands with geographic responsibilities, much like how the US is.
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  6. Unless they get into a real war though, they're going to lack a lot of combat experience to survive and fight in the degraded repair and maintenance state that hostilities will impose. It's one thing to fight lightly armed pirates with a brand new vessel, it's another to successfully dodge mines, escape submarines, return fire, and survive limping back to a faraway friendly port at half speed on a cracked screw, an overworked boiler ready to explode, and a critically sleep deprived crew.
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