Interesting. Coincidentally, I had just watched Scott Ritter and Carl Zha arguing passionately over the US vs China war fighting mindset. In that argument Carl Zha also brought up this Mao quote that men, not atom bombs wins wars.
What started this argument was that Carl Zha dismissed the power and relevance of the US today too casually. Ritter, while not a fan of the current US government today is still a boomer, and that triggered him. He ranted about USA #1 for awhile, and after calming down, he said that he is warning people around the world to not push the US into a corner too much too soon. Because there are too many nutjobs like Lindsey Graham and Trump in the halls of power, and they might just go crazy and throw nukes around. But Carl Zha doubts the US nuke threat, called it a bluff, and used that Mao quote too casually. Both Ritter and Zha have flaws in their argument. Ritter thinks that China is getting cocky and is out to get America now. Not true at all. He still doesn't understand China enough. While Zha just dismisses the US threat of war with China too casually. The Americans may be cowards, but their military is still very formidable against China. Now is not the time to dismiss them as a threat. Never underestimate your adversary. Don't make the same big mistake as the Qing Dynasty.
Mao was not wrong, but sometimes people do throw his quotes around too casually. It is true that men win wars, not nukes, but just don't dismiss the nuke threat too easily. Nukes are still controlled by men. The US didn't nuke China during the Mao era because it was just not worth it. Today, it's a different US and China. There are no more WW2 veterans in charge in the US. And China is poised to overtake the US economy and overturn over 200 years of Anglo-European domination of the world. For today, it might just be worth it to nuke China out, if the Western world have already accepted that they are doomed. Ritter was arguing to not dismiss that threat too casually. Because there are preemptive nuclear strike plans against Russia and China and the US is getting more desperate. He mentioned that the US neocons and haters still think that they have a massive warhead count advantage over China. They wet dream a surprise preemptive first strike on China because they think that the US might just fare better in a post nuclear exchange with China. Nobody survives nuclear war. But there are too many idiots in America who think they can.毛泽东并没有错，但有时人们确实太随意地引用他的名言了。确实，赢得战争的是男人，而不是核武器，但不要轻易忽视核武器威胁。核武器仍然由男性控制。美国在毛泽东时代没有对中国发动核武器，因为这不值得。今天，美国和中国已经不同了。美国不再有二战老兵掌权。中国经济有望超越美国经济，推翻英欧200多年来对世界的统治。今天，如果西方世界已经接受了他们注定要失败的事实，那么用核武器将中国驱逐出去可能是值得的。里特主张不要太随意地忽视这一威胁。因为针对俄罗斯和中国都有先发制人的核打击计划，而美国正变得更加绝望。他提到，美国的新保守派和仇恨者仍然认为他们比中国拥有巨大的弹头数量优势。他们梦见对中国出人意料地先发制人，因为他们认为美国在与中国进行核交锋后可能会表现得更好。没有人能在核战争中幸存。但美国有太多白痴认为他们可以。
I have brought up this same neocon viewpoint here about 4-years ago, in the middle of the Covid pandemic. I had argued with some people about the need for China to actually build a credible nuclear deterrence against the US. What China had in 2020 was enough to deter India, but it was still far from enough to deter the US. It still is today. Trump and his MAGA Republicans would sacrifice millions of Americans to Covid, so that they could show the middle finger to China's success at containing Covid. So why should they not do it with nuclear war if they were desperate enough? China should not gamble on the assumption that the leaders in the US are still reasonable people. Minimal deterrence is no longer enough. China has to attempt to achieve parity with the US nuclear arsenal. Only then, could China's deterrence be taken seriously by the American neocons. The good news is that the Chinese leadership is doing exactly that, by expanding its arsenal to 1000 warheads first. I personally believe that they'll go further after that, until they match with the US.大约四年前，在新冠疫情期间，我曾在这里提出过同样的新保守主义观点。我曾与一些人争论过中国是否需要真正建立针对美国的可靠核威慑力量。 2020年中国的实力足以震慑印度，但还远远不足以震慑美国。今天仍然如此。特朗普和他的“让美国再次伟大”共和党人愿意为新冠病毒牺牲数百万美国人，这样他们就可以对中国成功遏制新冠病毒竖起中指。那么，如果他们足够绝望的话，为什么不发动核战争呢？中国不应该赌博假设美国领导人仍然是通情达理的人。最小的威慑已经不够了。中国必须努力实现与美国核武库的平衡。只有这样，中国的威慑才能被美国新保守派认真对待。好消息是，中国领导层正在这样做，首先将其武库扩大到 1000 枚弹头。我个人认为他们会在这之后走得更远，直到与美国比赛。
I still remember arguing with one idiot who argued vehemently that China's nuclear arsenal is a just waste of money. That China should actually spend that money on more economic development. If China would not have nukes at all, that'll better. This idealistic idiot is either high on something, or he is actually a hanjian pretending to be concerned for China.我还记得和一个白痴争论，他激烈地辩称中国的核武库纯粹是浪费钱。中国实际上应该把这些钱花在更多的经济发展上。如果中国根本没有核武器那就更好了。这个理想主义白痴要么自以为是，要么就是假装关心中国的汉奸。
