A war between the US and China in the near future? Doubtful. I wonder if there’s a line on such a prospect in Vegas.
As plnnr & mbacko1 have pointed out: strong Sino-American economic ties preclude armed conflict between the two nations. Paul in Saudi points out neither the USA nor Red China are willing to consider war in the near to midterm and that historically wars rarely occur by accident.
About a year ago, I heard an alarming (and possibly exaggerated) policy analysis from a conservative sociologist that predicts an exponential increase in Chinese military aggression over the next few decades. Since the 1970’s, The People’s Republic of China has had an unwritten One-Child Policy. One negative consequence of such a policy has been an ever-increasing male to female ratio.
From Global Policy:
A generation from now, they’ll be too many Chinese men and not enough women. It’s more than likely China will see an increase in male aggression and crime. The only government remedies would be:[ul][li]Overturning the one-child policy (and hoping the situation will correct itself over the next few generations)[]Allowing multiple-husband polygamy, or []Thinning the surplus male population by sending them to war.[/ul][/li]
You never know. Perhaps the Chinese official who in 1996 made a thinly veiled threat to nuke LA when he said to former Ambassador Charles Freeman:
just wasn’t getting laid and had a build up of testosterone in his bloodstream.