# What would the west do if China grabbed a chunk of Siberia?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-west-do-if-china-grabbed-a-chunk-of-siberia/725851>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 22, 2015, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-west-do-if-china-grabbed-a-chunk-of-siberia/725851 "2015-07-22T03:23:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 56

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**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\
**Post date:** [July 25, 2015, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-the-west-do-if-china-grabbed-a-chunk-of-siberia/725851/56 "2015-07-25T05:35:37Z")

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> [@madsircool](#):
>
> Mao wasnt afraid of nuclear war:
> 
> [http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/4758-maos-nuclear-mass-extinction-speech-aired-on-chinese-tv/](http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/4758-maos-nuclear-mass-extinction-speech-aired-on-chinese-tv/)
> 
> > [@](#):
> >
> > Mao’s exact words were: “I’m not afraid of nuclear war. There are 2.7 billion people in the world; it doesn’t matter if some are killed. China has a population of 600 million; even if half of them are killed, there are still 300 million people left. I’m not afraid of anyone.”
> 
> The logic still holds true; China can absorb a whole lot more casualties than the Russians.

Only that’s not logic, that’s ignorant chest-thumping. If half of the population of China were to disappear in mushroom clouds tomorrow, it would mean every major city in China and most of the minor ones were consumed in those mushroom clouds as well. China as a nation or a civilization in any meaningful shape or form would be over. Before you think China has a snowball’s chance in hell at winning a nuclear exchange with Russia, I posted this in another thread in GD just [yesterday](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=18544033&postcount=24):

> [@Is conventional invasion worth a nuclear war?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-conventional-invasion-worth-a-nuclear-war/725924/24):
>
> The only reason the vast majority of the Russian civilization and populace would survive and continue is because China has such a small nuclear arsenal [(~230 warheads, including both deployable and non-deployable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction)) and only [66 ICBMs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction#2010_IISS_Military_Balance) with the range to even reach targets in European Russia. Russia, on the other hand, could end China many times over with [its current stockpile of 8,500 warheads of which 2,500 are strategically operational](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction) if for some bizarre reason China was in a position to take half of Siberia by force, which it is not.

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