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> what's wrong with building up a navy?

Ask Taiwan and the Philippines how they feel about that.

By the same logic we probably should also ask China about US Navy cruising close to its territory regularly, i.e. how does China feels about that over the years. China has indeed never been a country that is offensive, unlike the west.

China prefers to fighting internally instead historically.

Unless never does not apply to any history older than about three decades past, I think Vietnam and India would have serious problems with the characterization that china has not been (militarily) offensive.

That's not to draw any comparison to the history of the us, but china is hardly a paragon of restraint, even in the relatively recent past.

> China has indeed never been a country that is offensive, unlike the west.

Tibet? Korea?

> China prefers to fighting internally

There's a lot of that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_wars_and_battl...

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