Metals and mining for rare earths that could well form the basis for the strategic reserve currency of the BRICS.
Sanctions from Western allies and vassals wont work, and will fail eventually! Hit them with rare earth embago, and string them on a case-by-case basis. Let them sweat!!
I don't understand why we don't start something like the BRI here in the United States. Biden has floated the idea of course, , but knowing the US we will find a way to sabotage the project or do conditional attachments like many IMF grants use. We've already seen how the Saudi's and OPEC deny us access to oil, coupled with the fact Biden sold so much oil from our SPR, and now we are grinding to a halt in that regard. Germany, a longtime opponent of Russia, just got passed up in GDP PPP according to the World Bank, by, guess who, Russia. Sanctions and embargoes just screw our country over, especially when we have a country like China that can hit back.
Yeah they have to provide some form of security and assurance, we all know that. However the issue is that China since Mao's death has had a totally different policy geopolitically speaking. They have all but stopped any form of overt or covert foreign support to other countries. The country is more focused on business and growth not millitary aventures or supporting friendly governments/countries. I dont see that changing either this decade, and no China will not provide any form of security guarantee to any middle eastern country or any country for that matter(not even Pakistan), hoping for that is just wishful thinking . Lol The only country that has any form of security guarantee with China is brutal world Pariah regime North Korea and that too is a Maoist era legacy which the current CCP leadership unconfortably inherited and couldn't do much about. I doubt if they will even honor it if push ever come to shove, since Pyongyang régime is already almost anti China today as the young Fat Kim has purged and killed off several pro chinese elements in his regime since taking power. Lol
Problem is the US that can't and won't tolerate an equal or superior China, and China won't tolerate having it's people's interests harmed, so you have a two way lockstep towards conflict, where the US holds the de-escalation lever.
Yeah, but the issue is China doesnt have any wish of doing that. China will(and is) merely be adopting defensive measures to defend herself and her immédiate interests(which SCS , taiwan and technological self suifficiency) , if that is not totally stopped by the US/West then i dont see China taking any offensive measures, just defensive/réactive ones. When there is no Will then there is no way. At présent Chinese leadership has no intention of displacing the US or even challenging US interests to be honest. China will remain mainly focus entirely in her own country's internal interests and at best immediate neighbourhood to some extent.
in the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu carried out offensive expeditions into Xiyu and Mobei to end the Xiongnu threat.
The historical part is not really true though. There's a reason China is even larger than the whole EU. They did a lot of empire building. It's just that the tech didn't exist for global empire building during the pre 1700s era.
You should know that grown-ups don't always say what they think and going to do next. Both Han and Tang dynasties bribed Xiongnu and Tujue for decades before eliminating both. Why do you think PRC isn't going to do the same? Is Chinese suddenly brainwashed by aliens?
Han and Tang dynasties reached all the way to morden day Kazakhstan. However, Yuan dynasty (Kublai's realm) did not control morden day Xinjiang.