
Originally Posted by
Jon`C
What is the ideological conflict? The US-Soviet conflict was rooted in the revolutionary politics of global communism. i.e. rich Americans didn't like the Soviets telling the workers what's up. China doesn't seem interested in doing that. All that seems to interest them is lebensraum for the Han ethnostate, which is a big problem for its neighbors, but ostensibly not America.
Like, China's major imperialism in Africa is buying up farmland and forcing local governments to build ports with Chinese debt. Do Americans want to own that African farmland, instead? I mean, maybe, I guess. Unless you view the world like a game of Risk, it seems like a pretty lame payoff after the level of militarization necessary to protect those investments and the shipping lanes to get that food back to the US. It's a much better deal for China, which gets to feed its population.