comment: >
  
  I don't understand why China is so aggressively placing their own country in the middle of all of these hostile military bases. Are they looking for war?
context: Well, this is a first. It says 5 comments and none are here. Shadow bans galore. >
  
  Nah, it's because of our participation requirements which are listed in the publicly available rules.
  In order to participate on /r/news:
  1) Your account must have 300 combined link/comment Karma
  2) Your account must be older than 90 days (3 months)
  3) Your account must be email verified.
  Your account must meet all 3 of these requirements to participate on /r/news.
  We made an announcement post about it over a year ago and we also do mod sticky comments from time to time on big threads to remind people of the requirements.
  
  Literally every removed comment in this thread is from either a new account, an account with negative karma, or an account that is not email verified. >
  
  Thank you. >
  
  This is where maintaining good relationship with other countries pay off.  US has managed over time to gain bases around the world whereas China has currently one base in Djibouti and negotiating second base in Equatorial Guiana.  They have created artificial islands in South China Sea with landing strip at immense cost. >
  
  Do you think the reason China only has 1 military base outside of its border is because they can't get others to agree to let them build more?
  This is like peak projection of the US world view. >
  
  The practical reason China has only one military base outside is because until fairly recently Chinese Navy was only small part of their military.  That changed when US Navy humiliated China by sending its warships near China and China was unable to respond.
  CCP realized they need world class navy to counter US and went on spending spree to modernize and expand its navy.  They took shortcut where possible to speed up modernization.  A good example is when China purchased derelict Russian aircraft carrier ostensibly to be converted and used as floating hotel casino and had it towed all the way back to China.  Of course, China instead studied the hulk to get an idea on carrier construction, refurbished, modernized into functioning aircraft carrier as their first.  Then they constructed second carrier using what they learned from first for their first domestically constructed aircraft carrier.
  Unlike US though China used its modernized navy to push its expansionist view which did not go well as can be imagined.  My subjective opinion is that this made China's plan for base outside Chinese sphere very difficult so China is using its money to buy base from impoverished country. >
  
  I was with you until the last paragraph. 
  Modern day China is not trying to pursue expansionism. They have no such policy and it shows because literally all their current territorial claims and disputes were inherited from the RoC and Qing. I actually think their claims in the SCS go too far, but their other territorial claims are at least reasonable if not rightful in historic context. 
  This also ties into why they have so little international military presence. The US uses its military bases as a means of projecting force against geopolitical rivals. China does not because they're pretty isolationist and don't see merit in this form of force projection. Their sole base in Djibouti is to protect their shipping routes from piracy (granted, the US have more benign bases like this too).
  I'm sure Cuba would happily accept a Chinese military base if China wanted to go tit-for-tat on this growing cold war, but they're not the ones looking for conflict despite everything we're being told. >
  
  Thanks for your comment.  I hope others who read both of our comment can have discussion like this. >
  
  Thank you too, have a nice day.