China breaks through the geographical disadvantage, and the future stars are sea
Hello everyone, I am Uncle Yang, the editor-in-chief. As the famous American historian Will Durant said in the book "The Lessons of History", geographical location has a profound impact on the development of history, which not only gave birth to human civilization, but also shaped the formation and evolution of various cultures in the long course of history.
The reason why we are Chinese is because we are deeply rooted in this land. Imagine if East Asia were just a scattered island, rather than a whole continent, would we be as fragmented as Europe was?
Without the nourishment of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, and without the nourishment of the impact plains, would our civilization have lasted for 5,000 years and shined brightly? If Soochow had not been protected by the Yangtze River during the Three Kingdoms period, would the Battle of Chibi be different?
If our south did not have those mountains and mountains, would the War of Resistance against Japan be even more difficult? All this makes us deeply realize that this land is our root and our soul.
Title: Geographical Advantage: The Rise and Fall of Chinese Civilization The geopolitical environment has an important impact on the development of a country, and China is no exception. From ancient times to modern times, many events are closely linked to geography.
And the geographical advantages of our land determine its rise and fall. In ancient times, China had significant geographical advantages. Although there have been many dynasties, we are the only one of the early human primitive civilizations that has not been broken.
This is thanks to the strong cohesion of Chinese culture and the huge geographical advantage we had before the advent of the maritime age. Before the Age of Discovery, our entire coastal area was the equivalent of our back, and most of the time, we only had to guard against threats from the northern land, without worrying about enemy attacks from the sea.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Great Gobi form a natural barrier against the invasion of foreign peoples and cultures. Internally, the Yangtze River and the North China Plateau provide a high-quality environment for plants to grow, and there are only five such areas in the world.
It has high carbon efficiency and carbon sequestration capacity, and is able to produce large quantities of food, which is the key to our becoming a world-class powerhouse, with a large population and a strong national base.
The Hexi Corridor in the northwest is like a solid city gate, ensuring our commercial activities through the Silk Road, and at the same time allowing us to protect the core of the Central Plains.
As long as we firmly control the Yanshan Mountain and Taihang Mountain in the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, and then further seize the Altai Mountains and the Great Xing'an Mountains in Mobei, we can live our lives with peace of mind.
The nomadic and fishermen-and-hunters of the north may pose a military threat, but eventually they will all be assimilated.
In ancient times, East Asian countries used to be the world's leading powers, but due to the backwardness of navigation technology, this advantage gradually disappeared. Today, the enemy at sea can use its mobility advantage to attack on our long coastline, and even the strongest forces on land are broken by the opponent one by one due to poor mobility.
After all, the speed of movement on land cannot be compared with ships at sea.
In this era, the threat from the north has not subsided, but has taken on a different form. In the 19th century, when Mahan's theory of sea power appeared, Tsarist Russia was still the greatest national defense pressure on our country.
They used various means to seize a total of 1.61 million square kilometers of land in China's northwest, Mobei, and outer northeast, and even put forward the Yellow Russia Plan in an attempt to swallow up the entire area north of China's Yellow River.
From the late Qing Dynasty to **, the plundering of China's territory by Tsarist Russia made China's geopolitical situation precarious in modern times. In the west, the British occupied India and used it as a base to invade**, while McMahon also rowed out our Ladakh.
In the southwest, the French occupied Vietnam, Burma, and attempted to invade Yunnan. To the south, the South China Sea was haphazardly occupied by a group of small countries, while to the east, Taiwan was occupied by the Japanese for half a century, so much so that there are still people on the island who consider themselves emperors.
The loss of the northeastern part of Outer Mongolia has forced our northern defense line to shrink to the Yanshan-Taihang Mountain line, and the country is in danger of being divided from Beijing at any time; Korea in the northeast, which has maintained a complicated relationship with us since it was occupied by Japan, could not prevent the post-war purge of the pro-Chinese faction, even if it made great sacrifices in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and throughout the Cold War, North Korea treated the Soviet Union as a big brother.
It can be said that many of the humiliations we have experienced in modern times are largely due to the progress of technological means, which has caused us to lose our geographical advantages and at the same time face various threats.
Many territories and dependencies that had been used as strategic buffer zones were occupied and became bases for the enemy's advances.
Our country has a clear geographical advantage, with a vast territory and numerous mountainous areas, and we can effectively defend in the south even if the northern defense line is lost.
Coupled with the tenacity and perseverance of the nation and the strong cohesion of the nation, we successfully resisted the aggression of foreign enemies and successfully survived that difficult period. Although we have lost millions of square kilometers of land, the fundamentals have been preserved, giving us the possibility of a resurgence.
On the contrary, if even the current 9.6 million square kilometers of land cannot be preserved, occupied by the enemy, or formed into many small countries, then the Chinese nation will never have a chance to turn over, let alone rejuvenate itself.
We used to have a geographical advantage and strategic points, but now in the age of the oceans, we are at a great disadvantage. Although we continue to make military progress and are expected to become a global leader economically, the key points of the ocean are basically controlled by the United States, and the sea is a key way to open up to the outside world.
To put it simply, foreign trade accounts for 30% of our country's GDP, and oil, chips, and many mineral resources depend on the ocean. If you want to blockade us, you only need to control the Strait of Malacca or the Persian Gulf, and our economic lifeline will be threatened.
For this reason, we have been working to strengthen our naval capabilities, and in recent years we have achieved remarkable results, including the addition of 055 large drives and aircraft carriers to protect our sea lanes.
However, the development of the navy is also affected by geopolitical factors, and even with advanced equipment, it still needs to break through the blockade. And our current geopolitical advantage is not obvious, without the support of our allies, and there is only one overseas base in Djibouti, this situation is somewhat similar to the Black Sea Fleet of the Soviet Union, although it is strong, but due to the geographical disadvantage and falls into passivity, the operation to the sea is limited by others.
The first and second island chains in the eastern seas form the maritime defense line from Japan to the Philippines to Iwo Jima and the Mariana Islands. The detection and anti-aircraft anti-ship and anti-submarine equipment on this line of defense is very complete, which can monitor our ** and submarines in real time, so it puts forward extremely high requirements for the silent performance of our submarines.
However, it is precisely our propeller precision manufacturing technology that is relatively weak, and the noise level is much higher than that of European and American submarines. Therefore, it is very difficult to break through the eastern island chain, both surface and underwater.
How do you defend effectively while breaking through the opponent's defense? This is especially difficult with underwater nuclear submarines. Due to the scarcity of suitable launch positions, it is difficult to achieve submarine ambushes even in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, where the water depth is 90 meters, and the East China Sea, which is 72 meters.
To make matters worse, our submarines can be easily detected by our adversary's powerful anti-submarine forces.
Of the waters around China, only the South China Sea has the dual advantages of submarine activity and launch positions. The South China Sea is not only a vast sea area with a depth of 1,000 meters, but also an important international shipping lane.
Therefore, in recent years, China has been actively building islands and reefs in the South China Sea. However, some countries have created trouble in the South China Sea.
Although our geographical location in the mid-latitudes and our vast territory also create great difficulties in threatening a strong enemy. The range of our ICBMs and bombers is longer than that of the United States and Russia, which means that we need to fly longer to reach the target of the strike.
In addition, American bombers can carry out aerial refueling through bases in the first island chain, which we do not have. Therefore, we need to face more challenges and constraints when conducting air strikes.
Although we traditionally believe that to deter the other side of the ocean, it is necessary to fly over the Pacific Ocean, in reality, if flying from the Arctic to the United States, the distance is much closer. However, such a path would need to pass through the Russian Far East, depending on Russia's position, as it is prone to miscalculations in wartime.
The United States deploys powerful reconnaissance and anti-missile equipment in Alaska and Hawaii, as well as the THAAD system in South Korea, which poses an almost immediate threat to our country. At the same time, the United States takes advantage of its geographical superiority to defend itself, and the planes and missiles deployed at forward bases can directly attack, so it has both offensive capability and defense, and the geopolitical buffer margin is very large.
Based on the above reasons, the development of the DF-41 is much more difficult than that of the United States and Russia, the missile requires more fuel, heavier, and higher mobility requirements, which gave birth to a new generation of wave-riding missiles represented by the DF-17.
In the future, with the increase in demand, Dongfeng 27, Dongfeng 37 and even Dongfeng 47 will also come into being. Although the waverider warhead has excellent performance, the limitations of its land deployment make it have a limited range of maneuver, and it can only sprint into the predetermined launch position at a short distance, and cannot be launched anywhere at will.
Although long-range maneuvering by road is convenient, it is easy to expose the target, provoke an enemy strike, and delay the time window for a strategic strike in hours or even minutes. In contrast, air mobility is a better ultimate way to greatly increase speed and survivability.
Large bombers, supported by refueling in the air, can be on standby in the air for several days, and at the same time, they can also hide in the territorial air defense circle and maneuver for thousands of kilometers. However, most of the airspace of air-launched ICBMs is outside the atmosphere, so there is no problem of violating the airspace of other countries.
In peacetime, it is only necessary to deploy in a few standing bases. Before the war, it is only necessary to evacuate and take off to standby. Every aircraft and every missile can be used for all tasks, so a much smaller number is needed than a relatively stationary road system.
From both a cost and a strategic point of view, this is significant.
In the face of the threat from the United States and Russia, we need to have large strategic bombers. Thankfully, our latest H-6N may be able to solve this problem. According to reports, its belly can carry a large missile that is longer than the entire engine compartment, reaching a length of 10 meters, between the DF-15 and DF-16.
Since it is an air launch, its maximum range will exceed the 1500 kilometers of the Dongfeng 16. Coupled with the combat radius and refueling capabilities of the H-6N, it is more than enough to cope with various challenges.
Rumor has it that we are working on a new ballistic missile, the CH-AS-X-13, which uses lightweight composite materials and two-stage solid fuel propulsion, with a maximum range of more than 3,000 kilometers.
If the H-6 runs out, we may consider following the example of the U.S. B2** strategic bomber, which has the ability to run long distances and also provides strategic space and security for the country.
All our equipment is aimed at breaking through geopolitical disadvantages and providing the country with more strategic space and security.
In our southwest, the dispute with India has been going on for almost two years, and every now and then it is the focus of the news. Currently, the main disputes with India are Southern Tibet and Aksai Chin.
Although we have more than 90,000 square kilometers of territory, it is illegally occupied by India, and they have even resettled and established villages in these places for a long time.
However, the southern Tibetan region is located on the other side of the Tibetan Plateau, which makes it possible for us to carry out a small amount of troop replenishment in peacetime. However, in times of war, this territory of more than 90,000 square kilometers may require an army of tens of thousands to defend.
However, we need to cross the entire Himalayas to deliver our clothes, food, or equipment.
India has the natural geographical advantage of being able to supply directly on the plains. If a protracted war breaks out in southern Tibet, it will cause huge losses to our country's development, because external forces will fully support India and drag us back.
Therefore, our main strategy in southern Tibet is to focus on prevention, to promote dialogue through crackdowns, and to solve problems flexibly.
The Korean Peninsula in the northeast has always been a sensitive area, and since it possessed nuclear weapons, North Korea has been trying to break free from the grip of China and Russia and seek opportunities for dialogue with the United States on an equal footing.
However, China and Russia can only do their best to reassure North Korea by providing sufficient security guarantees to prevent it from acting aggressively, but this limits China's initiative in the region.
We have to note the reality that China is the only one of the five major powers that is surrounded by multiple countries with nuclear weapons. North Korea in the northeast, India and Pakistan in the southwest, Russia in the north, and even Japan and Taiwan in the east have nuclear programs.
The Tohoku region does not have access to the Sea of Japan, a fact that many people may not be aware of. Due to historical and other factors, this vast plain is unable to have a port to the outside world, which is undoubtedly a major challenge for a modern society dominated by maritime transportation.
In fact, the long-term economic decline in the Northeast region is closely related to this geographical disadvantage. Today, we have drawn clear borders with Russia in the north and several Central Asian states in the west, and we have maintained good relations, and there is no need to gather millions of troops to carry out a one-way assault with a strong five-belt hydrogen bomb, as was the case during the Sino-Soviet confrontation.
Looking back, during the Cold War, Outer Mongolia was lost, causing China's northern defense line to shrink to Zhangjiakou in the Yanshan Mountains, and the Soviet army only needed to set off from Erenhot for one day and one night to reach Beijing.
This makes us have to consider how serious the geostrategic disadvantage of the north of our country will be if the protection of the Altai Mountains of Outer Mongolia is lost. Fortunately, history does not simply repeat itself.
Now that we have become a comprehensive strategic cooperative partner with Russia, this geopolitical disadvantage is not so urgent.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we chose to unite with this former adversary because we were not strong enough to need the support of Russia, a heavyweight partner.
Kissinger and Brzezinski's grand chess game theory holds that Russia has always had the strength to dominate all of Eurasia and the need to expand to the edge of Eurasia.
Therefore, even after the end of the Cold War, the United States has always carried out containment against Russia. At the same time, the US theory of the new world island emphasizes that in order to ensure the long-term strength of the United States, it is necessary to prevent the union of Russia and China on the basis of uniting Western Europe.
We are well aware of the U.S. strategy, so we strive to unite Eurasia and connect the whole of Europe and Asia through the Belt and Road Initiative, so that the Americas, and the United States in particular, are excluded from the center of the world.
This is a real conspiracy, and the United States is helpless against it. That is why we will establish friendly relations with Russia, draw together the five Central Asian countries to form the SCO, avoid conflict with India, and even be willing to establish good relations with India, thus opening the geostrategic channel of the entire southern part of Eurasia and the Indian Ocean.
Until we become the undisputed superpower in every way, we will stick to this strategy, both to keep the light and to make a difference.
Over the past century, Germany has faced similar challenges, as a latecomer to Britain in favor of France, which has adopted an offshore counterbalance strategy.
This tactic was amplified and used again by the United States on a global scale. However, the situation in China is different. As an ancient country with thousands of years of civilization accumulation, China is well versed in the trade-offs, and has chosen to turn hostilities into friendships with neighboring countries and share benefits through the Belt and Road Initiative.
Germany's history has inspired China to unite the forces of Eurasia and compete with the United States while maintaining peace. In general, we now have the best geopolitical landscape in modern times, independent and self-reliant, with strong industrial and economic power, and have become a politically and militarily important force in the world.
With the advancement of space technology and artificial intelligence, near-space and interstellar exploration have become possible, the future geopolitical situation will become unpredictable, and the traditional geostrategy may need to be transformed into an airspace strategy and interstellar strategy.
At that point, the geographical superiority of the planet and East Asia may not be so important. Our journey is a sea of stars, and the future will undoubtedly be a sea of stars.