Trying to keep my reasoning succinct in order to avoid writing a wall of text:
The soviets were geographically blocked from this being an option
Similarly for Vietnam for different reasons
Cuba doesn’t have the option of dedicating the requisite amount resources(and has the misfortune of being an island next to the most powerful current naval power)
China has the geography to become a great naval power. Sure, it doesn’t have both coasts. It has land connections that led to the Silk Road being a thing on the other, possibly a greater advantage.
They are building up militarily, and seem to be advancing commercial maritime pursuits on this well.
Thoughts?
in modern history, imperialist forces have traditionally held naval superiority. all AES states have started from a position of weakness (NONE were even regional hegemons at the time of their founding). but after 70 years, the PLA Navy has twice as many deployable ships as the US Navy. the PLA ships are smaller, but imo the warfare of today favors smaller ships due to missile technology. China far outpaces amerika in most science/technology and DF missiles can sink any amerikan ship (even the “floating city” aircraft carriers); any missile defense system is useless against these bc true hypersonic missiles (like the ones produced by China and Russia) are highly maneuverable and so far have not been intercepted.
amerika still has superiority is in the air. but considering how unreliable, untested, and built-for-inferior-forces the f-35s and new f-18s are, it’s likely China’s air forces can stand up to amerika. also it seems unmanned air is the modern MO, and i have no idea how China compares to amerika in that regard.
in sum, navies are very difficult to build and maintain. but the PLA Navy has grown a lot in the past couple decades. and its likely there are advantages held by the PLAN that are unknown as the US Navy is always being deployed, thus observed by all, while the PLAN has not been observed on the global stage
im also typing this after drinking more alcohol than ive drank in like 2 years so i probably made some errors
drunk geopolposting is one of the most powerful types, thank you for your service o7
thoseare some cool points of context to keep in mind, thanks. Also very drunk lol.
It is probably important to keep in mind that they are twoi very different navies. China's navy is great for self-defense purposes, but also not good for power projection. Difference in priorities. I think a good sign of "if china ever decides to spread revolution" is to watch the navy.
good point! it appears their goal rn isnt to spread revolution (yet) but to be able to win a war of western aggression. their operations could feasibly extend to the outer edge of Oceania, giving them plenty of buffer when the west inevitably starts their final war. and China’s type 004 aircraft carrier currently in production is about the size of amerikan supercarriers but will potentially carry more aircrafts. ik i said smaller ships are better in modern war but this is the one exception. sure, carriers arent near as important as they were in ww2 but they are still necessary for a modern navy. imo aircraft carriers are the ww2 battleships of the 21st century— when ww2 started the great power militaries quickly discovered their battleships werent near as important as they were in ww1 due to advances in aviation. modern advances in drones, hypersonic missiles, and submarines could mean these carriers play a background/support role in ww3
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i did consider this, but i decided to post that claim anyways. my line of thought was that japan had usurped hegemonic status for russia’s Asian sphere of influence. but ur right, they retained a high level of influence in their historical region