Name: China's Geography Problem
Uploaded: 2021-06-10T11:41:59.000Z
Duration: 10 min 50 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

基礎受動態

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China is a country both blessed and cursed by geography.

On one hand its land has allowed the country to grow to almost 1.4 billion people but on

the other hand it really doesn't have great geographical protection.

The beginning of what most people call Chinese history often starts with the Yellow River

Civilization and there's a good reason why this settlement grew into the most populous

country in the world—the floodplain of the Yellow River is some of the best agricultural

In fact, the entirety of eastern China is perfectly suited for Agriculture.

This was and still is crucial to the country's success.

What's more, this area is just warm and wet enough that farmers can do what is know

Once the main crop of rice is cultivated in June and July, another slightly less productive

crop can be planted for October cultivation.

This increases rice output by about 25% which means China can make more food using the same

Europe mostly relies on wheat to feed its population which only outputs 4 million calories

Rice, on the other hand, grows 11 million calories worth per acre.

It's easy to see why there are so many people in China.

But China does have its geographical challenges.

To the south it borders three countries—Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar.

The borders between these three countries and China seem almost arbitrarily set because

Vietnam's was set after the Sino-French War, Laos' was set following its involvement

in the Vietnam war, and Myanmar's was set following a small war with China in the 60s.

None was naturally set by the environment; all were chosen arbitrarily by humans at war.

These countries are not insignificant—combined they have nearly one million active military

personnel while China, the much larger country, has just over two million.

Significant conflict with any of these countries would not be a one-sided war.

While China would have the technological advantage, any of these three countries would have a

Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar are all jungle countries—one of the most difficult environments

This was part of the reason why the Vietnam war lasted so long.

It's just so hard to move troops in the jungle so everything slows down.

Without any geographical protection of its borders it would be significantly easier for

Vietnam, Laos, or Myanmar to invade China than the reverse.

But China does have an advantage elsewhere.

China and India just aren't good friends.

They have border disputes, military conflicts, political differences, so its just hard for

them to get along and that is why Tibet is so important.

Tibet was historically its own empire; it was only in the last 300 years that China

Tibetan people are ethnically different from the Han Chinese inhabiting China's east.

It just doesn't make sense for Tibet to be part of China… except militarily.

Only 0.2% of China's population lives in Tibet which accounts nearly 13% of the country's

More people live in the inner four districts of Beijing than the entirety of Tibet.

It's just incredibly desolate, but it serves a purpose.

If China didn't rule Tibet, then India would.

Maybe not formally, but there's little chance that an independent Tibet would not be economically

and culturally dominated by either India or China.

It just doesn't have enough power economically or militarily to resist, but in China's

view, it could not and cannot allow for an Indian Tibet.

Indian rule of Tibet would mean that there would be no geographical protection between

the populated area of China and India because Tibet is that geographical protection.

Not only does Tibet extend China's border to the Himalayas, it's also an unpopulated

area without the transportation infrastructure needed for an invading India to advance a

large number of troops towards eastern China.

But that also means that there's not the transportation infrastructure necessary for

China to advance towards India, but China is trying to change that.

They recently opened the worlds highest railroad to Tibet, they're building highways constantly,

and they also opened a large airport in Nyingchi just miles away from the border.

In the near term the goal of these projects is to further integrate Tibet into China.

The government has all but failed at winning over the native Tibetan population, but they

Hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese have moved into Tibet and many more visit each

The government knows that Tibet's usefulness is diminished if when a foreign military shows

up the population thinks that means liberation rather than invasion.

But there's another reason why China needs Tibet—water.

That whole eastern zone of agricultural productivity exists because of all the water from Tibet.

The Yellow and Yangtze Rivers—China's two longest rivers—both get their water

from Tibet and foreign control of the water supply of the country would, in the governments

mind, strike a catastrophic blow to the country's food security.

If there were, hypothetically, a significant mountain range separating Tibet from eastern

China, there's a good chance it would still be independent.

The water would still come from China and the mountains would act as the geographical

But to the North is another one of China's assets—Mongolia.

It's an enormous, sparsely populated, friendly country.

With the gobi desert and other desolate terrain, there's just little chance that any modern

land-based army could make it across with any efficiency.

The supply lines would be enormously long and by the time they got to the Chinese border

But then again, who would want to invade?

Mongolia's only other neighbor is Russia which is a friendly ally of China both militarily

China need not worry about its northern border until relations with Russia sour.

Now, you would think that this would be China's safest border—the ocean—but you have to

consider that powerful states lay just off China's shores, the most powerful one being

The United States has a significant Pacific military presence with bases in South Korea,

It's also a close ally with Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia meaning that, if a

serious dispute with China occurred, the US would have no problem blockading China and

cutting off its maritime access, and of course, China knows this.