Miscellaneous News

[mossen]

People now dunking on Xi for not trying to instigate WW3 with the West? Lol.

As I noted before, if it weren't for the US' dumb trade war antics then China would have been fine with the previous status quo. China isn't really out to overthrow the system, but simply to carve out a big enough space to be unshakable. That's my read anyway and Xi's comments seem to confirm it. This is one of many reasons why I am a BRICS skeptic.

 

[taxiya]

China does push for status quo to change and evolve to China's liking. So I don't think China would be fine with the previous status quo 5 years ago even without the trade war. Nor will China be fine with today's statust quo in 10 years. That is why I believe confrontation is inevitable regardless in what form. Also remember trade war is NOT the begining of such change, it was Obama's failed attempt of G2. Trump may be more dramatic in tactic but he is doing what the collective US ruling class all wanted to do, from Clinton, Bush Junior, Obama, Trump and Biden and will continue untill US is exhausted.

China isn't different from any rising big powers before. For example, US pushed UK and France out of Africa and Western Asia in the post WWII years in the name of decolonization, replaced British Sterling and French Francs etc. as the world trade currency etc.

To climb up the ladder, one need stick and carrot. The stick to break the aspect of old order that doesn't fit me, the carrot is to make the older powers to concede without fight. For the US, the stick is "decolonization", threat of sanction on UK and France in suisse canal crisis, the carrot is the marshall plan, access to US market and investment. China today is doing the same, BRICS is one of the sticks while Xi's partnership with US is one of the carrots. They are not exclusive to one another. One should not expect any of them to work one hundred percent either. It is a long game, nothing on tactical level is certain, only the final objective and trend is certain.

What China's seemingly "soft" stance is like how US managed to have Europe to hand over their positions in the world peacefully instead of what Germany tried.

 

[doggydogdo]

Why must one mirror the tariffs? The point of the tariff is to deny access to the market and revenue. An equivalent amount of economic damage can be dealt by hurting their market access and revenue. Consider China's virtual monopoly on various rare earth elements. Ban their export to the US and leverage the bottleneck to cause supply shortage of downstream components. What the hell is Lockheed gonna do when the magnets they need to produce aircraft run out?

Western companies are already losing market to Chinese competitors at alarming rates, tariffs are just going to make the west retaliate more which isn't good for China.

Also, rare earth isn't that rare, China just does it the cheapest

I have family from tier 1 cities to rural villages. Elite business owners to humble farmers. Call them boomers if you wish but they are a good representation of the population and are having a hard time adapting. If you have enough of the population struggling, it naturally erodes trust in the government and domestic markets.

Everyone everywhere is always struggling. Do you think Chinese 10 years ago isn't also struggling?

 

[supercat]

Corruption in the US, the Ozempic version:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1846608289884524977

Sample BRICS Pay card:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1846890064514601161

 

[GulfLander]

""It was in America's long-term national interest to have an active and constructive relationship with

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," said Ford, William Ford, chairman and CEO of General Atlantic, quoting former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger."

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1847081412220145821

"Hong Kong reclaimed its title as the world’s freest economy, topping 165 economies in “freedom to trade internationally” and “regulation,” according to the Canadian think tank Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World 2024 Annual Report released on Wednesday."

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1847004660973834247

"China's Ministry of Commerce said Thursday the country is studying increasing tariffs on imported fuel-powered vehicles with large-displacement engines and a decision will be made prudently after comprehensive consideration of various factors."

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1846974458357023113

"China saw 124 mineral deposits found in 2023, of which 16 were limestone and 10 were graphite deposits, making them the most abundant. By the end of 2023, a total of 173 kinds of minerals had been discovered in the country: Ministry of Natural Resources"

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1846471989638185220

 

[GZDRefugee]

Western companies are already losing market to Chinese competitors at alarming rates, tariffs are just going to make the west retaliate more which isn't good for China.

Also, rare earth isn't that rare, China just does it the cheapest

Sanctions and tariffs are coming whether or not China swings back.

Sure they have rare earth deposits, but do they have the ability to extract and process them at scale? I'm going to use gallium, not a rare earth but still an element that China controls the bottleneck for, as an example. It is produced as a byproduct from refining aluminum. Do you know what infrastructure is required to produce gallium at the scale China does? A dedicated power grid with the capacity of the entire US power grid. Good fucking luck building such infrastructure in the EU or the US.

Everyone everywhere is always struggling. Do you think Chinese 10 years ago isn't also struggling?

My family went from peasants to lawyers, judges, university professors, factory owners, executives for internationals in the span of a single generation. So yes, I don't think they were particularly suffering in the last 10 years. Goddamnit, when my direct family immigrated to Canada, it probably killed our odds of upwards mobility. My parents sure as hell are the black sheep compared to their siblings.

 

[canonicalsadhu]

China's strategy hasn't changed - to bide time to get stronger. Maybe China is already more powerful than the US, maybe not. The only thing that is certain is that under the current trajectory the balance of economic/tech/military power is shifting rapidly in China's favor, so why disrupt the status quo?
That's why Xi swallows his pride and the constant insults hurled by the US and plays the cooperative card.

 

[ansy1968]

When you take in the insult then its on you when NOT then its on them. So who is being insulted.

 

[august1]

China's strategy hasn't changed - to bide time to get stronger. Maybe China is already more powerful than the US, maybe not. The only thing that is certain is that under the current trajectory the balance of economic/tech/military power is shifting rapidly in China's favor, so why disrupt the status quo?
That's why Xi swallows his pride and the constant insults hurled by the US and plays the cooperative card.

I think a lot of the worry stems from our own personal observations about the obsequious nature of many Chinese when it comes to dealing with foreigners and especially white westerners. From diaspora Chinese to China's economic "elite" and even to modern China's founding leaders like Sun Yat-sen, there is always the worry that many Chinese will sell their fellow kind down the river either to curry favor with foreigners or just due to fear and passivity.

 

[E100]

In my opinion the current "passivity" of China is more or less simple inertia from the previous few decades of Chinese policy (The bide your time thing). It takes a fair bit of time for these things to change especially for a large organisation. I think that after a few years foreign policy will be a bit more active, and people will start demanding a more active approach than reactive.