Calling all conspiracy theorists! Chinese attack plans?

[tombogan03884]

The idea of the Chinese confronting us militarily is a paranoid delusion.
What possible reason could they have ?
They own a big enough chunk of our dept that they could have BO pull down the flag tomorrow if they wanted.
And there is a huge difference between having "a carrier" and having a viable naval aviation capability.
Even Nazi Germany had "a carrier".

[Pathfinder]

Those things in the Chinese desert? FEMA camps. We outsourced.  

[tombogan03884]

http://news.yahoo.com/mysterious-symbols-china-desert-spy-satellite-targets-expert-132005935.html

Newfound Google Maps images have revealed an array of mysterious structures and patterns etched into the surface of China's Gobi Desert. The media — from mainstream to fringe — has wildly speculated that they might be Chinese weapons-testing sites, satellite calibration targets, street maps of Washington, D.C., and New York City, or even messages to (or from) aliens.

It turns out that they are almost definitely used to calibrate China's spy satellites.

So says Jonathon Hill, a research technician and mission planner at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University, which operates many of the cameras used during NASA's Mars missions. Hill works with images of the Martian surface taken by rovers and satellites, as well as data from Earth-orbiting NASA instruments.

The grids of zigzagging white lines seen in two of the images — the strangest of the various desert structures — are spy satellite calibration targets. Satellite cameras focus on the grids, which measure approximately 0.65 miles wide by 1.15 miles long, and use them to orient themselves in space. [Gallery: Mysterious Structures In China's Gobi Desert]

The existence of these calibration targets may seem suspicious or revelatory, but Hill said it really isn't; China was already known to operate spy satellites, and many other countries (including the United States) do so as well. In fact, the U.S. also uses calibration targets. "An example I found just now is a calibration target for the Corona spy satellites, built back in the 1960s, down in Casa Grande, Ariz., [at coordinates] 32° 48' 24.74" N, 111° 43' 21.30" W," Hill told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.

The 65-foot-wide white lines that make up China's grids are not made of reflective metal as many news sites have suggested. "They have gaps in them where they cross little natural drainage channels and the lines themselves are not perfectly filled in, with lots of little streaks and uneven coverage. I think it's safe to say these are some kind of paint," Hill said, noting that if they were made of white dust or chalk, the wind would have caused them to streak visibly.

The calibration targets are larger than might have been expected, he said, suggesting that the satellite cameras they are being used to calibrate have surprisingly poor ground resolution.

Another strange image taken not far away shows a Stonehenge-like arrangement of objects radiating outward, with fighter jets parked at its center. "This is almost certainly a calibration/test target for orbital radar instruments," Hill said. "Since a significant amount of radar return is due to differences in surface roughness, they're probably testing ways of making the areas around planes 'bumpy' enough that the planes are partially masked."

In other words, the Chinese military probably uses radar instruments to send signals down at the target from above, and determine how much radar bounces back to the instruments from the fighter jets, and how much gets scattered by the Stonehenge-like arrangement of bumps surrounding them. From this, the country's radar experts can learn how best to hide China's military operations from other countries' satellites, and possibly get clues for how to find carefully hidden objects in other countries. However, the fact that the planes are made out of metal will increase their radar return and make it very hard to completely mask them, Hill said.

Since the initial reports of these structures became widespread, industrious readers of the gadget blog Gizmodo have spotted a few more interesting structures in China. One, Hill said, appears to be a weapons testing zone, perhaps for evaluating explosives. Elsewhere, a giant grid resembles a Yagi antenna array. Instruments like this can be used for any number of things, such as weather tracking, space weather tracking and high-altitude atmospheric research.

Hill noted that most of these structures are quite closer to each other. "I think we're seeing some sort of military zone/test range, which explains the large amount of equipment and technology in an otherwise remote area," he said. "Sometimes the truth can be just as interesting, if not more so, than the conspiracies that people come up with."

[jnevis]

The idea of the Chinese confronting us militarily is a paranoid delusion.
What possible reason could they have ?
They own a big enough chunk of our dept that they could have BO pull down the flag tomorrow if they wanted.
And there is a huge difference between having "a carrier" and having a viable naval aviation capability.
Even Nazi Germany had "a carrier".

They don't want to directly confront us, but they'd love to "regain" control of Taiwan.

The carrier itself isn't the problem, its the equipment aboard her, and the latest generation of destroyers, cruisers, and such that have the same or similar systems.  Up until the late 90s they didn't have an amphibious assualt capability either.  Now they can transport the equivelant of a MEB to Taiwan at will, while keeping our CSG's bottle necked.  Given the decline in our Navy (there is little the Army or AF could do in Taiwan in enough time to be a viable deterant)  and the speed which the PLAN and PLAAF are improving the next few years there will definately be a tipping point in thier favor.

[fightingquaker13]

By which point hopefully China and Taiwan will have come to some sort of EU like arrangement with each other, and both sides will be better off. Think about it. Same language, and very similar cultures. They patch together an agreement with shared passports and a common currency, Taiwan is treated as a sovereign state, the Mainland gets to claim victory as Taiwan came home under the banner of union with the mainland the senior partner, and both sides can get back to making even more money than before with far smaller military budgets. Just a thought.
FQ13

[Sponsor]

[tt11758]

[billt]

Any military force is only as good as it's supply chain. Ours is without question the best in the world bar none. We've proven it in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Our soldiers and military leaders want for nothing. China, North Korea, along with a lot of these Pacific Rim nations cannot move and or supply their military to 1/5th the degree we can.

Look at North Korea. They can't even feed their own people, how could they move, feed, and supply their military to fight an engagement 5,000 or 10,000 miles away. Their troops would run out of ammunition and starve in a week. That is why all you see is that dog eating POS march them around that square in front of him, because that is about as far as they can go.

Iran is much the same. If they engaged Israel in an all out ground war there is no way they could keep their troops supplied long enough for a lengthly successful engagement. If you look at the complexity of our Military Airlift Command, it is all but unimaginable. They make it look easy. It is not. It is extremely difficult and expensive. Look at the cost of one single MRE from when it leaves the manufacturer to when the soldier who eats it opens it in the field in Iraq or Afghanistan. The damn thing is worth what a 7 course meal would run a Che Paul's!

[tombogan03884]

They don't want to directly confront us, but they'd love to "regain" control of Taiwan.

The carrier itself isn't the problem, its the equipment aboard her, and the latest generation of destroyers, cruisers, and such that have the same or similar systems.  Up until the late 90s they didn't have an amphibious assualt capability either.  Now they can transport the equivelant of a MEB to Taiwan at will, while keeping our CSG's bottle necked.  Given the decline in our Navy (there is little the Army or AF could do in Taiwan in enough time to be a viable deterant)  and the speed which the PLAN and PLAAF are improving the next few years there will definately be a tipping point in thier favor.

Here's a thought that occurred to me, and possibly the PLA leadership as well that will help keep the lid on that can of worms.
We are agreed that much of Red China's Nuke tech was stolen from us.
If one group of Chinese can do that , why not the other group ?
Nukes raise hell with amphibious assaults, no matter how good the equipment may be.
Here's another thing that occurred to me.
The Reds refer to Taiwan as a " Rebellious Province".
But logic dictates that since the Govt of Taiwan derives from the Govt. of Chaing Kia Chek, then Taiwan is the legitimate govt and the Mainland are the illegitimate rebels.
The Reds lost that argument when they failed to prevent the evacuation to Formosa.

[mkm]

Here's a thought that occurred to me, and possibly the PLA leadership as well that will help keep the lid on that can of worms.
We are agreed that much of Red China's Nuke tech was stolen from us.
If one group of Chinese can do that , why not the other group ?
Nukes raise hell with amphibious assaults, no matter how good the equipment may be.
Here's another thing that occurred to me.
The Reds refer to Taiwan as a " Rebellious Province".
But logic dictates that since the Govt of Taiwan derives from the Govt. of Chaing Kia Chek, then Taiwan is the legitimate govt and the Mainland are the illegitimate rebels.
The Reds lost that argument when they failed to prevent the evacuation to Formosa.

Before I went over there (China) this summer, they made sure to inform us of topics that shouldn't be discussed.  China claims Taiwan, and Taiwan claims China.  Taiwan uses traditional writing whereas China uses the simplified version if that's any indication.