Scary China

China cannot be certain that its military, while steadily strengthening, is capable of conquering Taiwan, the Pentagon said Tuesday in a new report on Chinese military power and strategy. Over the longer term, however, an increasingly modernizing Chinese military could pose a threat to U.S. and other forces in the Asia-Pacific region, it said. CNN

I'm not sure what to say about this. If you read the article, and some others that seem to pop up daily, you get the idea that China is preparing to take over another country. The U. S. has vowed to defend to defend Taiwan when the shit finally hits the fan.

Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing of China said in response to the report that his country would continue to "pursue a path of peaceful development." The annual Pentagon report on China's military said that China is emphasizing efforts "to fight and win short-duration, high-intensity conflicts" over Taiwan. China's military spending has grown by double-digit rates since the mid-1990s and "appears focused on preventing Taiwan independence or trying to compel Taiwan to negotiate a settlement on Beijing's terms," the report said. ... China does not yet have the military power to take Taiwan by force, the report said, and Beijing's conventional forces are not capable of threatening U.S. territory, as "China's ability to project conventional military power beyond its periphery remains limited." But the report cautioned that China was modernizing and expanding its arsenal of nuclear missiles that are capable of reaching the United States. Herald Tribune

China doesn't seem to be very concerned. I am concerned. I have some friends who are highly intelligent who seem to just blow China off. "What are they going to do, swim here?" I want to remind them how many Chinese students, scientists, engineers, doctors, and other professionals live here and fit in to society. The Mexican border is as likely to stop a determined terrorist as a barb wire fence is to stop a flood. I firmly believe that if the U. S. and China get into it over Taiwan, China will hold U. S. cities hostage, not with missiles, but with planted agents who will commit a terrorist act on command.
Can you imagine trying to stop the commands from going through? In this day of the internet, instant messaging, email, and international text messaging any seemingly mundane message such as "aunt Martha's birthday is coming up." might set the cell off on it's appointed target. China cannot even cut it's own people from the internet.
The U. S. strategy lately is to make sure that China makes so much money off the citizens of this country that they will be too afraid of loosing money if war breaks out. That sounds pretty shaky to me.

BBC
I was listening to the BBC today, as I do pretty much every day, and I hear that buzz noise that mobile phones make next to electronic stuff. I'm sitting there checking my phone. Did I get a text? About the time I assure myself that my phone is in a pure state of noiseless bliss, the commentator comes on and asks if any one being interviewed has a mobile phone in their pocket. So, It isn't just me. It ended up being one of the "[former?] professional broadcast journalist".
The funny thing is, you hear that all the time now. It seems like every interview that isn't a planned press conference, you hear phones ringing in the background and hear that annoying buzzing over the line running over someone's voice. It is highly distracting. I'm afraid it is a fact of our current times.