China and War
What awaits our well-funded generals
We’ve seen what today’s warfare looks like — sleek, cheap, deadly, Iranian drones versus aged, inaccurate, expensive American missiles ($20,000 vs. $4 million each); sitting-duck targets and bases (ours); ships so vulnerable we can’t afford to deploy them. The military world has changed, and we’re not a part of it.
Yet in their wisdom or hubris (or Bacchantean madness) our makers of war still think China the great international prize and they mean to go after it. (For more on China, see “Alfred McCoy: Controlling the 'World Island'” and “Iran, China and America's Great Game”.)
So for fun, let’s look at technology in China today.
Drone Shows
The Chinese have been putting on shows like this for a while.
In 2024, this show held the largest image ever formed by multi-rotor drones. More than 7500 machines were used in the display.
And this show in 2026 broke that record. It employed more than 22,000 drones.
Beautiful, yes? Now think: would you care to see this in battle, armed to the teeth? I would take these displays as military demonstrations. Not kidding.
China’s Next-Level Dog
Via Glenn Diesen, whom I’ve come to appreciate, we find this fun bit of Chinese technology. This is the most agile robot dog on the planet. (Turn off the sound if it plays.)
Looks great on the dance floor, right? Care to see one in battle? How about a dozen. A hundred.
A Fantasy War from China
And finally, an AI dream from China of some future war. My source is this post on Twitter, whose own source I don’t know. So take this as fantasy, M. Night Shyamalan-style. The AI is excellent, by the way; almost passes for real.
Did you notice the NATO flags on those blown-out cars?
This looks like our navy to me:
And at 1:32 there’s a not-quite American flag on one soldier’s sleeve.
Conclusion
First, someone’s preparing for us. In fact, they’re already prepared.
Second, if we can’t beat Iran, a smart, mid-level power, this group will eat our lunch, spank our kids, sink our carriers, and send us home with a note to sit down and shut up. We’ve already lost.
I frankly don’t know what they’re thinking, our masters of war. The one-polar world is gone, and they’re acting quite mad. Won’t anyone wake them up?
Well, that’s reassuring:
Yes. China is America in 1940. Massive civilian industry which could be retooled not for thousands of drones, but MILLIONS. Right now it's a tech of the weak (as I predicted over a decade ago) but it scales with industry, and China is the industrial lead who also LOVE drones and robotics and didn't make civilian aerial drones essentially illegal the way America did.
I see our generals perched on a branch above mine, making book on whether my branch gets subsumed.
Our foreign wars should be over. Sending kids into zones that are totally unprotected like West Asia, East Africa, and Eastern Europe is tantamount to executing them.
On the domestic side a low intensity war with dead end Trump followers taking a side is something we have coming.
May our generals take front-line positions should such a conflict ensue. Best if they do not all pick the same side. Let a fair coin pick.