China the next superpower?

Kev_ps3 wrote: »

Atrocious human rights record? Thats nonsense. At least they arnt invading country's left right and center.

karma_ wrote: »

Also, why the fúck would they have had to invade an island nation that was already defeated militarily when the Allied fleets and air power could have blockaded them.

NTMK wrote: »

:eek::rolleyes:
even the generals at the time disagree with that statement the war didnt end for 2 weeks after the A-Bombs. I was just a full demonstration of the results of the Manhattan project

Jocelyn Quick Cloud wrote: »

There was a report recently that the research papers their uni's are producing are basically 95% muck but apparently now they claim to be the second highest producer of them on earth, this says alot about them.

Add to that the fact that they rarely think outside the box and are very conformal.
All they do is copy other countries idea's and products, until they start creating things instead of copying them they will never sustainably hold higher economic powers than the U.S.

I don't know the political system well but they will need to become a democracy before this will change imo.

Chinese copy of Austrian village stirs emotions


By George Jahn, Associated Press

Saturday, 18 June 2011

It's a scenic jewel, a hamlet of hill-hugging chalets, elegant church spires and ancient inns all reflected in the deep still waters of an Alpine lake. Hallstatt's beauty has earned it a listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site but some villagers are less happy about a more recent distinction: plans to copy their hamlet in China.

After taking photos and collecting other data on the village while mingling with the tourists, a Chinese firm has started to rebuild much of Hallstatt in faraway Guangdong province, a project that residents here see with mixed emotions.

Publicly, Hallstatters say they are proud that their village has caught the eye of Minmetals Land Ltd. the real estate development arm of China Minmetals Corp., China's largest metals trader. With most of them dependent on the hundreds of thousands of tourists who overrun Hallstatt's 900 inhabitants each year, they see the project as good for business.

"We're happy they find it beautiful enough to copy," says souvenir store owner Ingrid Janu. Hallstatt Mayor Alexander Scheutz describes the plan as "a compliment to our village," while hotel owner Monika Wenger thinks at least some Chinese who have seen the copycat version of Hallstatt will want to visit the original.

But in a deeply traditional part of Austria shielded for centuries from much of the rest of the world by towering mountains and steep valleys, the apparent secrecy surrounding the project has also revived suspicions of outsiders, even though Hallstatt survives only because of the millions of tourist dollars spent here every year.

Although the Chinese developers say construction started in April, Scheutz and Wenger say the village knew nothing about the plan to replicate Hallstatt until early this month. They say a Chinese guest involved in the project and staying at Wenger's hotel spilled the beans — apparently inadvertently — showing Wenger drawings and plans she should have kept to herself of the central marketplace, Wenger's 400-year old hotel and other landmarks that were mirror images of the originals.

"I saw myself confronted with a fait accompli," says Scheutz of his first reaction when he saw the drawings, now collected in a thick folder on his desk containing documents that he says copy much of the town, down to the individual boards of scenic wooden balconies. While he disputes local media accounts citing him as furiously vowing to prevent the Chinese project, he acknowledges being "definitely a bit stunned."

Wenger is more outspoken. She says most of the villagers she has talked to are "outraged — not about the fact but the approach."

"I don't like the idea of knowing that a team was present here for years measuring, and photographing and studying us," she said Thursday, sitting at her hotel's terrace against the stunning backdrop of Lake Hallstatt, its surface mirroring nearby granite peaks. "I would have expected them to approach us directly — the whole thing reminds of a bit of Big Brother is watching.

"This house is my personal work of art," she said of her 400-year-old hotel. "And then someone comes here and copies it — for me, it's as if a painter copies someone else's artwork."

The Chinese developers are advertising the project as low-density, high-end residential development "surrounded by mountains with mountain and lake views," to be built "in a European architectural style, with a commercial street built with the characteristics of an Austrian-style town."

But at the Chinese site, in the city of Huizhou about 100 miles north of the border with Hong Kong, there is little to indicate that the copycat version will ever approximate the beauty of the original.

aligator_am wrote: »

I always found that one of the greatest ironies about the A-Bombs dropped on Japan was that the Americans stumbled across the missing materials on a German U-Boat destined for Japan!

Once they got the inventory of the sub they had enough raw materials to complete their bombs.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

That's absolute rubbish. The allies sunk a German sub which was sending jet engine designs (Already known to both Nazi's and the Allies) to Japan. It was the only time one submarine has sank another in battle. No Axis state ever got close to finishing a nuclear weapon.

German submarine U-234 was a Type XB U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Her first and only mission into enemy territory consisted of the attempted delivery of uranium and other German advanced weapons technology to the Empire of Japan. After learning of Germany's unconditional surrender, the submarine surrendered to the United States on 14 May 1945.

[edit] Construction

Originally constructed as a minelaying submarine, U-234 was damaged during construction at Kiel in 1942. Following the loss of U-233 in July 1944 it was decided not to use U-234 as a mine layer and she was instead completed as a long-range cargo submarine with Japan missions in mind.

[edit] Wartime service

U-234 returned to the Germaniawerft yard at Kiel on 5 September 1944, to be refitted as a transport, instead of a minelayer. Apart from minor work, she had a schnorchel added and 12 of her 30 mineshafts were fitted with special cargo containers the same diameter as the shafts and held in place by the mine release mechanisms. In addition, her keel was loaded with cargo, thought to be optical-grade glass and mercury, and her four upper-deck torpedo storage compartments (two on each side) were also occupied by cargo containers.[4]
[edit] Cargo

The cargo to be carried by U-234 was determined by a special commission, the Marine Sonder Dienst Auslands, established towards the end of 1944, at which time the submarine's officers were informed that they were to make a special voyage to Japan. When loading was completed, the submarine's officers estimated that they were carrying 240 tons of cargo plus sufficient diesel fuel and provisions for a six- to nine-month voyage.[4]

The cargo included technical drawings, examples of the newest electric torpedoes, one crated Me 262 jet aircraft, a Henschel Hs 293 glide bomb, and what was listed on the US Unloading Manifest as 560 kg of uranium oxide. As evidenced by Hirschfeld and Brooks in the 1997 book Hirschfeld, Wolfgang Hirschfeld reportedly watched the loading into the boat's cylindrical mine shafts of about 50 lead cubes with 9 inches (230 mm) sides, and "U-235" painted on each: according to cables sent from the dockyard, these containers held "U-powder". However, according to author and historian Joseph M. Scalia, who discovered a formerly secret cable message at Portsmouth Navy Yard, the uranium oxide had been stored in gold-lined cylinders; this document is discussed in Hitler's Terror Weapons. The exact characteristics of the uranium remain unknown; it has been suggested by Scalia, and historians Carl Boyd and Akihiko Yoshida that it may not have been weapons-grade material and was instead intended for use as a catalyst in the production of synthetic methanol for aviation fuel.[5][6] When the cargo had been loaded, U-234 carried out additional trials near Kiel, then returned to Kiel where her passengers came aboard.
[edit] Passengers

U-234 was carrying twelve passengers, including a German general, four German naval officers, civilian engineers and scientists, and two Japanese naval officers. The German personnel included General Ulrich Kessler of the Luftwaffe, who was to take over Luftwaffe liaison duties in Tokyo; Kai Nieschling, a Naval Fleet Judge Advocate who was to rid the German diplomatic corps in Japan of the remnants of the Richard Sorge spy ring; Dr. Heinz Schlicke, a specialist in radar, infra-red, and countermeasures and director of the Naval Test Fields in Kiel (later recruited by the USA in Operation Paperclip); and August Bringewalde, who was in charge of Me 262 production at Messerschmitt.[6]

The Japanese passengers were Lieutenant Commander Hideo Tomonaga of the Imperial Japanese Navy, a naval architect and submarine designer who had come to Germany in 1943 on Japanese submarine I-29, and Lieutenant Commander Shoji Genzo, an aircraft specialist and former naval attaché.[7]
[edit] Final voyage

U-234 sailed from Kiel for Kristiansand, Norway in the evening of 25 March 1945, accompanied by escort vessels and three Type XXIII coastal U-boats, arriving in Horten two days later. U-234 spent the next 8 days carrying out trials of her schnorchel, during which she accidentally collided with a Type VIIC U-boat performing similar trials. Damage to both submarines was minor, and despite a diving and fuel oil tank being holed, U-234 was able to complete her trials. U-234 then proceed to Kristiansand, arriving on about 5 April, where she underwent repairs and topped off her provisions and fuel.

U-234 departed Kristiansand for Japan on 15 April 1945, running submerged at schnorchel depth for the first 16 days, and surfacing after that only because her commander Kapitänleutnant Johann-Heinrich Fehler considered he was safe from attack on the surface in the prevailing severe storm. From then on, she spent two hours running on the surface by night, and the remainder of the time submerged. The voyage proceeded without incident, and the first sign that world affairs were overtaking the voyage was when the German Navy's Goliath transmitter stopped transmitting, followed shortly after by the Nauen station; Fehler did not know it, but Germany's naval HQ had fallen into Allied hands.

Then, on 4 May, U-234 received a fragment of a broadcast from British and American radio stations announcing that Admiral Karl Dönitz had become Germany's head of state following the death of Adolf Hitler. U-234 finally surfaced on 10 May in the interests of better radio reception and received Dönitz's last order to the submarine force, ordering all U-boats to surface, hoist black flags, and surrender to Allied forces. Fehler suspected a trick and managed to contact another U-boat (U-873), whose captain convinced him that the message was authentic.

At this point, Fehler was practically equidistant from British, Canadian and American ports. He decided not to continue his journey, and instead headed for the east coast of the United States. Fehler thought it likely that if they surrendered to Canadian or British forces, they would be imprisoned and it could be years before they were returned to Germany, and believed that the US, on the other hand, would probably just send them home.

Fehler consequently decided that he would surrender to US forces, but radioed on 12 May that he intended to sail to Halifax, Nova Scotia to surrender to ensure Canadian units would not reach him first. U-234 then set course for Newport News, Virginia, Fehler taking care to dispose of his Tunis radar detector, the new Kurier radio communication system, and all Enigma related documents and other classified papers. On learning that the U-boat was to surrender, the two Japanese passengers committed suicide by taking an overdose of Luminal (a barbiturate sleeping pill). They were buried at sea.[7]

[edit] Capture

The difference between Fehler's reported course to Halifax and his true course was soon realized by US authorities who dispatched two destroyers to intercept U-234. On 14 May 1945 she was encountered south of the Grand Banks by the USS Sutton. Members of the Sutton's crew took command of the U-boat and sailed her to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, where the U-805, U-873, and U-1228 had already surrendered.

News of the U-234's surrender with her high-ranking German passengers made the event a major news event. Reporters swarmed over the Navy Yard and went to sea in a small boat for a look at the submarine. The fact that she had a half ton of uranium oxide on board was covered up and remained classified for the duration of the Cold War;[8] a classified US intelligence summary of 19 May merely listed U-234's cargo as including "a/c [aircraft], drawings, arms, medical supplies, instruments, lead, mercury, caffeine, steels, optical glass and brass."[9] The uranium subsequently disappeared, most likely finding its way to the Manhattan Project's Oak Ridge diffusion plant; it has been calculated that it would have yielded approximately 7.7 pounds (3.5 kg) of U-235 after processing, around 20% of what would have been required to arm a contemporary fission weapon.[10]
A torpedo from USS Greenfish sinks U-234 off Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Dr. Velma Hunt, a retired Penn State University environmental health professor, has suggested the U-234 may have put into two ports between her surrender and her arrival at the Portsmouth Navy Yard: once in Newfoundland, to land an American sailor who had been accidentally shot in the buttocks, and again at Casco Bay, Maine.[11] The US Navy reportedly unloaded about 1,200 pounds (540 kg) of uranium oxide from U-234 at Portsmouth, but the two dismantled Me 262 jet fighters were not listed at Portsmouth, suggesting that they had previously been unloaded somewhere else. However, other accounts do mention the Me 262s at Portsmouth.
[edit] Fate

As she was unneeded by the US Navy, U-234 was sunk off Cape Cod as a torpedo target. She was destroyed by the USS Greenfish (SS-351) on 20 November 1947.

dresden8 wrote: »

How many countries has America invaded/bombed since WW2? How many has China?

I reckon the US would win hands down, Tibet included.

How many Democratically elected governments has China toppled versus the States?

I'll start you off with Chile and Iran, neither by China by the way.