China is probably not yet ready to mount a complex air-sea invasion of Taiwan, with the mighty USA at its back. But it would have no real difficulties making land invasion into Russia.
Taiwan… not yet, too hard, but Russia is officially a GO opines our dunk tank subject, further free military advice for China can be found in the article
I think it probably could be fairly defined as either but I would also grant you that they could be considered to have much different goals as a whole than Western militaristic and expansionary endeavours and that, generally speaking, they balance those goals against a wider group or population than you would see the West doing.
Are they happy to expand into contested zones? Absolutely. Will they make shows of force to do so? Absolutely. If it means a protracted military solution though then that’s not going to happen, they’re not interested. They will attempt to find a commercial solution or they will just wait for an opportunity over a very long period of time.
Isn’t that… the definition of contested zones? Like, Morocco contests Ceuta and Melilla, Spain contests Gibraltar… and there’s endless political tension from these issues.
Doesn’t this go against the definition of militarism?
“War, trade, and piracy together are a trinity not to be severed.”
90% of wars are for commercial interests, and the rest are sus too.
Wars being for commercial interests, doesn’t imply that engaging in trade makes you militaristic
But it is not opposed to it, and in fact often correlates with it.
Yeah but china isn’t a country known for engaging in military action
Yes, but pointing at commercial interests is not helping this case at all.
Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism