Ok so I posted that image as a joke, but this is now literally South Korea.
Yes, stand up and firm for what is right, but don't be a Karen and entitled like those prats, that's not how to win friends and influence, to borrow from Dale Carnegie.
Is Peter Zeihan going to backtrack since he's getting this wrong. One of his arguments that China is going to collapse was the US was going to be tired and stop protecting the sea lanes. Chinese shipping wasn't going to be protected anymore. China was going to collapse because it couldn't export anything anymore. Zeihan is like Indians. All he does is read about what other people say first, summarizes it all together, and later repeats it like he were the first to say it. I remember reading how the US was talking about how the US Navy doesn't have to patrol the Persian Gulf because the US doesn't get anything from out there. China does though. Then why are they patrolling the Red Sea? Europe is still dependent on oil coming out the Persian Gulf and have to transit through the Red Sea to get to Europe. The US needs other countries to carry out its foreign policies. Look at how the mighty US needs China, their enemy's help, because they need a viable Europe to help to keep the US influential in the world. The US is not going retreat from the world like Zeihan thinks.
It's really amazing. If you're an investment manager and make say 2 major screw ups with your analysis so you lose money, you're probably finished.
PZ is after views from China haters, he's not a real analyst at all. Real investors or people in real power positions don't listen to him.
American protection of the global trade and American autoarky are American national myths that never had anything to do with real world. At no point of history piracy managed to block trade from happening. Because everybody has an interest in trade ongoing and pirates are not omnipresent and powerful aliens. They are usually poor, loosely organized criminals. And USN never had trade protection as a major consideration. It was a land attack navy for its entire history.
When we think of pirates, we think of those fictional criminals with eyepatches, a wooden leg and speak with that stereotypical pirates accent who just want to get drunk and live life to the fullest with that booty. But in real life some of the most famous and successful pirates like Drake, Kidd, Morgan etc were literally paid off by the Brits to hunt down their enemies. They seem less like fun-having adventurers and more like naval mercenaries to do privateering. Some were knighted or got posts of being governor of an entire island. Blackbeard was actually originally a privateer for the Brits but decided to do his own thing due to lack of job opportunities during his time.