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 The full remark attributed to Napoleon is “God help the world when the Chinese learn to shoot.” He probably said it somewhere around 1810-1820, and around then China was just a lot of people who had virtually no technology, no industry, no science, maybe a few British guns around. Few would have predicted the China of today.

But the China of today has technology, industry, science and lots of guns, big ones, and it is flexing its muscles around the world. It is lending vast amounts of money to different countries in Latin America in exchange for various advantages in those countries. One of those negotiations, for example, gave China the option of buying 90 percent of Ecuadorean oil production for the next 50 years. There appear to be many such Chinese investments and activities all over the world. 

The China of today recently completed building and is now operating a 50 million dollar satellite and mission control center in—think about it—the middle of Argentina. China is working on a mission to the moon and after that Mars, and for this it needs a satellite tracking hub on the other side of the world, so it built one in a secret deal with Argentina. Such a space facility has great scientific value, but it also has significant military advantages.

The Chinese have learned to shoot.