Is China's naval power a threat to the West? | Simon Jenkins, Isabel Hilton, and Duncan Potts
216Simon Jenkins, Isabel Hilton, and Duncan Potts debate the state of naval warfare and China's growing influence on the high seas.
Will China's navy tip the scales of global power?
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As conflicts spiral across the globe, we tend to think wars are won on land and in the air. But critics argue the real battleground and the primary arena is the sea, and sea power the means by which global influence is delivered. 90% of all trade is carried by sea, and many strategists have concluded it is control of the oceans that in a global world enables dominance, as Pax Britannica and Pax Americana demonstrated over the last couple of centuries. Nevertheless, the U.S. navy has shrunk by 50% in 40 years, while China's has doubled in the last 20 years to become the largest in the world.
Should we recognise that naval power is the ultimate determinant of global influence? Is the relative decline of US and Western naval forces a sign of the end of Western dominance and will China be the world power of the future? Or is it a fundamental mistake to see control of the sea as vital in a technological age where ships are easy to target and hard to defend?
#worldwar3 #ChinaVsUsa #tariffs
Simon Jenkins is an author, newspaper columnist and editor. He is currently a columnist for the Guardian and was formerly editor of the Times and Evening Standard. Duncan Potts is a retired Vice Admiral of the Royal Navy where he was the Director of the Joint Force Development. Before this, he was commander of the EU's counter-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean at the height of Somali Piracy. Isabel Hilton is a renowned international relations expert, journalist and broadcaster. She is the founder of China Dialogue, an organisation dedicated to fostering understanding of China. Hosted by the BBC's Roger Hearing.
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00:00 Introduction
00:20 China's naval ambitions and shifts in global power
02:34 A critique of neo-Imperialism
03:29 China's impact on Western economies
04:10 The importance of naval power
07:31 The possibility of a naval invasion of the British isles
08:59 Strong power, soft power, and the risk of a third World War
09:57 The militarisation of the South China Sea
11:32 Putin, NATO, and Xi Jinping
13:36 Should the West intervene?
14:20 We must stand up to dictators and autocracy
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