Who do you believe to be a bigger threat to the US: China or Russia?

41 comments

  1. China because our economies are more entangled. It’s like two kids kissing who got their braces stuck together. Getting out of that situation isn’t going to be painless or pretty.

    Russia is a circus where they advertise lions but it’s a dog in a wig.

  3. A Russian offensive was held back by a smaller, less well equipped military supported by random civilians and grandmas making molotov cocktails in their kitchen.

    I dont think anyone has to worry about the Russian military except maybe Ukraine.

  4. Theoretically, China, because our economy pretty much 100% depends on them.

    Realistically, Russia, because China’s entire economy depends on us, and Russia has nothing to lose.

  5. China. Russia has shown itself to be a paper tiger with money abjectly wasted and having to drag people off the streets and from prisons to fight.

    China might get desperate and invade Taiwan in my lifetime. If this question came up two or three years ago I might have actually said Russia but not any more.

  6. Directly? China. They’re richer, probably have a better military, and our economies have been sleeping with each other unprotected for decades.

    Indirectly? Russia. Because Putin is a psycho and I believe they’re significantly more likely to start some insane international incident that we inevitably get pulled in to.

  8. China’s leadership came to the conclusion that manufacturing capacity is national power. That the world revolves around the country that makes everything. So they are committed to drive all other manufacturing out of business by undercutting and product dumping.

    The only way to respond to that is economic disengagement, which is painful because, well, they’re undercutting.

  9. Everyone says China but China isn’t battle tested. They have thoughts and opinions on how well their military will perform but that’s about it.

    I’m more concerned with espionage with China vs military might. We are battle tested and we know exactly how we will perform.

  11. A collapsed Russia that loses control over military and nukes.

    China and the us depend on one another. And I hope that continues. Tough to go to war with your biggest trading partners.

  12. China, hands down. What we’re seeing in Ukraine is the desperate last gasp of a dying empire. I’m fully convinced that Poland could defeat them on their own (this is no slight against Poland, it’s just that we believed for years that it would take the full might of NATO to defeat Russia). The biggest threat from Russia will come from its collapse.

    China on the other hand, is cunning and patient. Their economy ain’t what it used to be, but they still have a massive industrial potential that should not be taken lightly.

  13. Neither country actually poses any real threat to the US whatsoever. If I had to pick one I’d say Russia, simply because their instability could lead to their nukes falling into the wrong hands. But China invading the US is a military impossibility, and there’s no reason for them to even try it given that it would utterly collapse their economy.

  14. China by far. I suppose we are in more immediate danger from Russian nukes. But long term, China is much larger (population) than either Russia or the US, and has probably more corrupt / fascistic government that can do whatever the fuck they want.

  15. Russia is a pathetic, backwards country living in the 19th century except for one aspect – their nuclear weapons. If it wasn’t for those, they could essentially be ignored. With those, it’s kind of a crapshoot.

  17. Nobody in China has the political ability to declare open warfare on the US.

    When the Chinese people started to riot over Covid & before that smog, the government changed. So I don’t think they can afford to declare war on the USA; the people wouldn’t want it once supply chains & jobs started getting screwed up.

    …Meanwhile, with Russia, the people don’t have as much influence & apparently you can stay in power even after starting a suicidal war with your neighbors. Russia wouldn’t willingly attack NATO but the risk of an accidental war because their troops are badly trained & do something stupid around a border or a nuclear power plant or a bunch of grain shipments is a lot higher.

    ….Like, obviously the answer should be “the one who is already in an open war on their borders for no good reason”.

    Edit: And everybody who says “oh well Russia’s army sucks” – yes they do – but Russia’s army didn’t beat Napolean & Hitler, mud & snow & empty miles beat Napolean & Hitler. Its isn’t Iraq. We wouldn’t just roll into Moscow the way we rolled into Baghdad. If we could the Ukrainians would already be there. Nukes would fly & even if they didn’t we just don’t have a big enough armed forces to impose our will on that many square miles.

  18. China, but currently both are regional powers that aren’t really a direct threat to us. Russia has been bludgeoning itself, trying to take 2 provinces in Ukraine for nearly a decade, China has been building busy building a navy. They’ve been cranking out ships as capable as ours (on paper, anyway), and in 10 years, they might be able to challenge us in the western Pacific.

  20. China.

    The culture is completely different from anything in the west, they are the worst polluters, the largest military opponent, and the most economically intwined with the west.

  21. Russia cannot pose a credible threat to U.S. with their conventional military. They do however have a nuclear arsenal that makes them a threat to the entire world.

    A full scale war between the US and China would be apocalyptic.

  22. China has more capability, but Russia is more cornered right now with a weak conventional military and ton of nukes.

    I think the current situation with Russia and the war in Ukraine is really unsettling.

    China is a long term power threat, Russia/Putin is a near term threat to do something irrational.

  23. China. We’re basically in a cold war with China right now, but it’s certainly not even remotely close to where it was with the USSR.

  25. Definitely China

    Russia’s Army is getting punked daily by one that is far smaller and less experienced, and their [Navy](https://youtu.be/yzGqp3R4Mx4) is historically bumbling

    China has a lot of political and business ties with the US, they have a large Army and a Navy that rivals our own closer to probably any other country in the world, and a culture that really really really doesn’t like to quit. That being said, I think China would be less likely to start a war with us out of nowhere. Both them and the US have a lot to lose

  27. The US is the biggest threat to the US. Members of our own government are trying to subvert Democracy

  28. I’m saying Russia until there’s a Chinese version of Alexander Dugin whispering batshit what if fanfiction to China’s head of state.

  31. I think both countries have certainly been working on the long game with us, and that we are close to some large changes. You already see it in the results of all of the disinformation and hacking that has happened in the past 10 years and what it’s done to our domestic community. That said, I think a transition with China is already happening – they are more interested in a sustainable – but comprehensive – economic transition whereas I think Russia is more conflict-oriented, which won’t work in the medium term.

  32. As a Chinese, I think the current behavior of the United States is more threatening to the whole world.
    When will the United States sit down like an adult? You are not three years old anymore, there has to be a limit to going around smashing bottles and destroying the whole world.

  34. China. They got billions of people. Plus Russia is broke as fuck. They couldn’t take a war.

  37. Honestly I don’t really consider either a threat. The biggest threat to the US is fascism w/in it’s own borders, and always has been.

  38. China.

    Before the Ukraine vs Russia war, I’d have said they were basically equal. But as that war has gone on for quite a while now, and shown how much Russia struggles to ‘win’ that war with conventional means, and I’m not convinced that Russia is really the super power it once was.

    China by contrast, has much more economic power than Russia, and equal/comparable military as the US.

    Of course the great equalizer is that both countries have access to nukes, and given that, technically they are “equal” threats ultimately. But if we ignore that they have nukes, and rely on the other bits and pieces of “what makes them a threat”, it heavily leans toward China over Russia.

  39. I don’t think either are threats to us. No country can realistically pose a threat to US soil other than their nukes because invading us would be too hard and it wouldn’t make sense for any country to want to either. We just hype up the alleged “threats” because most of the public and the government are scared of us losing our military power and influence on the world stage, so we make up some propaganda about how threatening certain countries are to us every new decade and people believe it. I don’t view other countries as a threat unless they’re actively attacking US soil, planning to or invading us. Because we can choose whether or not to be involved in other countries affairs, whereas if our soil gets attacked or invaded then our life depends on it as well as the future of the country’s existence itself.

  40. Depends on what you mean by threat. On balance, I would say Russia short-term, China long-term.

    Russia is enormously destabilizing and is compelling its neighbors and the United States to invest more of its resources in defense and tracking nuclear weapons. I would rather be spending those resources solving other problems.

    China is rapidly modernizing, with significantly more people than the United States, and does nearly all of US manufacturing. You basically can’t buy a product on Amazon nowadays without buying it from a seller that is actually China behind the scenes. China is very intelligently and ruthlessly aiming for global economic domination, and based on what they’re doing inside their own borders, I imagine global ethnic domination will come shortly afterward.

  41. Hahaha fucking seriously?

    Look, I don’t wanna contribute to the bullshit narrative that China is “the competent one” just because it was smart enough to let Putin stick his dick in a hornet’s nest first so he could tell Xi how angry they are, but *we have literally been helping Ukraine kill and maim hundreds of Russian soldiers every day and all Russia has done is ask us to stop.*

    We are 100% at war with Russia in everything but name and they’re so fucking terrified of us they refuse to fight back. Think about how truly pathetic that is. Imagine having so little self-respect you let your “close rival” bomb you with impunity in front of the whole world.

    If nothing else, China is at the “be silent and thought a fool” stage of the proverb, which is a Hell of a lot better than Russia’s “lose a quarter-million soldiers and remove all doubt”.

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