Nah, it was a proof of concept that 'lost' to regular HSR. The regular metro already does its job, just slower and cheaper. They might do other maglev lines elsewhere but I imagine the Pudong Line will remain mostly just a novelty.
and next time I go back I intend to do the maglev train from Shanghai to… wherever it goes
It goes from the airport to the middle of nowhere, thanks to NIMBYs. It's basically a rollercoaster.
You literally did say that China will retaliate. You made no mention of the possible difference between policy and practice, which I thought was interesting enough to introduce to the discussion. Why are you being so hostile? There's absolutely no need for it.
You're saying China will retaliate, I'm saying that China only has to say that they'll retaliate and what they actually do can be different.
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It's ok that Matty's office building is full of asbestos.
China didn't have their own nukes during the Korean war. Obviously there were external factors in play that will have influenced things (
) but there wasn't one-on-one MAD between the US and China/Korea.
I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're saying here.
There's nothing to be gained, I'm just saying that MAD still functions.
As I said elsewhere, Corbyn during a debate basically said he wouldn't retaliate to a nuclear strike; people were really mad and called him a threat to national security but I really don't think his stated intentions ever really mattered because you can never judge how legitimately he'll stick to those statements once shit hits the fan.
If they're verifiably getting rid of their warheads, sure, but otherwise? What if leaders have a change of heart in the moment? What if military leaders have hidden access to weaponry even if civilian leadership disagrees? What if a display of pacifism is actually just a weird ruse?
At what odds are you rolling the dice?
If American intelligence finds out that Chinese nuclear commanders would not actually launch a second strike, you can bet your ass we begin bombing in five minutes.
They'll never know for sure though, so MAD still works. Honestly a country could explicitly state "we will not fire back" (as Jeremy Corbyn kinda did) and MAD still functions. You can't roll the dice on existential issues like that.
Stated policy is irrelevant once the missiles are in the air.
China needs to say that they'll retaliate, because that's the deterrent, but if deterrent has already failed then we can start thinking about whether China should retaliate, because retaliation really achieves nothing materially beyond revenge at that point.
Gay/enby/heroin addict won't join the US military, but that's not really the point.
All I'm saying is that the US Military allows various acceptable forms of vice, suitable for the kind of people who might join up, whereas Islamists are far more restrictive.
It's one of the most iconic moments in the human-ice war, a time when the ice could really strike back, before our fossils fuels were able to permanently cripple their populations.
I imagine most of the time will be queuing for the iconic prow photo.
Or queuing for the fuck car.
I find it weird to racialize this. Minority westerners are overwhelmingly lib too. I simply don't trust any people from the west to be actual leftists (myself included).