Chinese Appeasement – China Appeases U.S. and Others

[Reality Check]

China has been Appeasing the United States and Others. At least one could argue from the Chinese point of view they have been doing so.

China allowed the blind activist to leave - giving the U.S. Obama administration a Humane Rights victory.

China went quiet on the war of words with the Philippines.

China barely responded to speeches by the U.S. Secretary of Defense that were provocative and clear challenges to positions China has forcefully taken in the recent past.

Assuming for sake of argument that China is actually appeasing the world at the moment, it might be both useful and entertaining to speculate on why they would be doing this. Here are few speculative possibilities ( I am sure there are many more ):

1. There is a transition of leadership, maybe even a quiet coup, taking place in China and the folks on the side that is currently winning want to keep everything quiet while they consolidate their control of the country.

2. President Obama is running for re-election and the Chinese leadership expects him to continue disarming the United States if he is re-elected and they do not want to do anything that might cause Obama not to be re-elected.

3. China is preparing to make an aggressive move against a neighbor and they wish to ensure the military powers that might interfere are both unprepared and clueless about what is about to happen.

...

[Trevor]

I still have the feeling that the first time China attacks someone, we're not going to intervene, at least not militarily. Our attitude seems similar to what Britain was in the 1930's.

There's been a transition in China due for some time now. The artists have held back the tide as long as they could, but they can't do it anymore. Question is: will war break out immediately after the new generation takes over or will it still take time?

[Reality Check]

I still have the feeling that the first time China attacks someone, we're not going to intervene, at least not militarily. Our attitude seems similar to what Britain was in the 1930's.

Even if the Chinese hope you are correct, does not mean they would bet on it.

It is far more likely they would plan for resistance, and accept surrender by the U.S. if offered.

[Trevor]

I don't think it's going to be a rational decision. Threatening us with nuclear war is a foolish thing to do and yet it's exactly what they're doing. This will be something based on panic and emotion, similar to what Israel did with Lebanon.