pull down to refresh
Crippled is entirely appropriate but most in the west prefer to ignore the reality because it is challenging to their sense of inflated entitlement and superiority that has accrued over 5 centuries of global domination - however if you look at the evidence the US military industrial combine is truly fucked without the refined rare earths China controls supply for.
Why hasn't China taken over Taiwan? You think they are as stupid as that? Think a little more about the situation and what China seeks to achieve...I am not here to explain everything for you.
But think about how China might be a lot smarter than the US empire that has squandered its hegemony and is now on its knees to China.
China need not rush or even turn to crude military violence- all the strategic advantages are increasingly falling into its lap. It seems much more inclined to the subtle power of mercantile leverage. As the dominant global manufacturing nation and increasingly developed in high tech production Taiwans future economic prosperity is increasingly tied to China, not the declining and sclerotic and dysfunctional USA.
Read some history and try to understand the Chinese mindset- it is in many ways a lot more sophisticated than the crude swashbuckling western imperialists.
At the very least read up on eating bitter.
Yes- without a secure supply of refined rare earths the US military industrial complex cannot produce much of the high tech war materiel required to fight as modern war, let alone maintain a modern economy. Crippled is perfectly appropriate description of the state the US military industrial complex is in today...though they might not want to acknowledge it and are probably mounting the Venezuela gunboat diplomacy to demonstrate some remaining capacity- but as far as any large scale military conflict of any duration the US military is crippled at least until it can regain secure supply of refined rare earths.
My call for comment is in reaction to my comment...I see you missed that nuance so I now make it explicit since the protocol of a good faith sequential contest of ideas seems foreign to you.
If you had been reading my posts and considering their content in good faith you might have been better prepared for this.
Chinas State Capitalism is beating USAs decrepit and corrupt military industrial complex.
Trump is once again copying Chinas State Capitalism to try to minimise the damage to US power and global hegemony.
Probably too little too late because too many US commentators and 'experts', not to mention Washington commentariat, did not see it coming as they were drunk on US exceptionalism and its serial delusions.
You can't say I didn't try to give you the heads up in advance...now you might finally begin seeing the strategic reality as it is...then again...your penchant for shooting the messenger rather than considering alternative if challenging viewpoints may still blind you...
He has to try as otherwise Chinas CCP with its stranglehold over refined rare earths and direction of Chinese military and strategic supply chains will continue to eclipse the US military industrial complex.
Trump is now adopting the State Capitalism that China has exercised over the last 30 years... and the USA is a long way behind...its industrial supply chains are severely depleted and highly exposed to the momentum toward hegemonic domination that the Chinese economic and strategic advance presents.
USA backed down as soon as China blocked the export of refined rare earth showing the US military industrial complex is weak and vulnerable to Chinas expansive mercantile mixed economy model of development.
USA cannot fight a major war any time in the next decade at least without Chinas agreement and support- and China are still blocking all exports of refined rare earths destined to serve any military applications.
Trump made a major blunder own goal.
China has won the trade war and provoked by Trumps tariff bluff has now crippled the US military industrial combine.
The wealth of nations and their citizens is highly derivation of the skill, planning strategic positioning and management of their governments and the US government and its global hegemony has been captured and held hostage to corporate lobbyists for decades and is now facing imminent demise.
Trump is increasingly adopting State Capitalism rather similar to China.
Because USA hegemony is under a real threat and challenge from Chinas very successful State capitalism.
All the talk about freedom, democracy and free market capitalism is hollow man bullshit- its all about power wealth and hegemony.
Visitors to the USA from visa free countries like New Zealand must now submit to US immigration examination of their last 5 years social media posts and digital devices and can be expelled with no right of appeal or cause given. So much for the land of the free and freedom of speech.
Trump copying Chinas State Capitalism Autocracy more every day...since China cornered the supply chain of refines rare earths essential to the viability of the US military industrial complex leaving US military seriously incapacitated for at least the next decade.
@Cje95 for comment.
Great to see linux being increasingly adopted.
It is such a great system yet most people are not even aware of it.
The similarities with BTC are several.
If China had not taken Tibet the US would have installed nukes there and China would have never been more than a few minutes away from US nuclear attack. I agree it is tragic the cultural effect- but comparable roughly in terms of cultural aggression perhaps to the absolutely criminal treatment if indigenous American tribes.
BTW you write as if I am Chinese- this is not true and you know it.
I live in New Zealand, am of UK/Irish blood and have no affiliation with China.
I have not worked for any employer except myself for over 40 years so please stop insulting me and readers with assertions that I am Chinese or in any way other than a neutral observer interested in politics history and the growing and significant conflict that has developed between the US and China.
Now to the other conflicts - starting with Korea- when the CCP swept to power after the US nuked Japan and airlifted the Japanese occupying forces out of eastern China and Korea, where Japanese had enslaved the populations to servitute and support of the Japanese WW2 efforts, the CCP still faced considerable opposition from within China- many groups especially ethic groups with strong religious beliefs feared the Communists. But the US occupation of Korea and the advance of US troops through Korea toward China gave Mao the perfect opportunity to unite China in the purpose of self defense- China united to prevent the US who had taken over from the brutal Japanese occupation of Korea and pushed back the US occupying troops to where they remain today. WW2 literally never ended in Korea. To this day the two sides remain in a state of ceasefire. the threat of US invasion via Korea unite China under the CCP and to this day the threat of US imperialism remains a strong uniting force within the narrative and beliefs of Chinese people.
It is for good reason as Chinese can see the US has since WW2 become the global super power- taking over from the British Empire.
The other border dispute between China and India and Vietnam go back centuries.
Today China is reclaiming its traditional sphere of regional hegemony over countries it shares a land border with- Laos and Cambodia and most of Myanmar are already tribute states to China.
The big question that interests me is from what we know to date is China as aggressive militarily as US? The answer historically is clearly No.
Modern China has been predominantly defensive in its use of military force- as the examples you gave mostly show...mostly defensive ultimately from real or perceived US sourced military threats.
In the past (pre Opium Wars) China had expected tribute from nations on its border but those further afield of economic importance usually had Chinese settlements (Chinatowns) well established and co existing, often for hundreds of years to facilitate that trade.
In future if China continues to gain on and overtake US economic and military power how would China behave as a dominant power?
This interests me hugely as a New Zealander- we have traditionally been a UK/US Five Eyes aligned military and economic ally, but today like many countries enjoy most of our mercantile trade growth is with China whom we have a free trade agreement and highly complimentary economies.
How will modern China behave as a global super power?
Will it be forced into the pattern of militaristic power projection and interference with other nations in the same way as the US has done or might China operate on a different model?
Historically it seems possible China might be less inclined toward military aggression and more inclined toward economic ties, but imo the imperatives of empire are often ultimately brutal in terms of needing to assert ones 'property rights' as the recent kidnapping of the Venezuela president by the US and the dozens of US military and espionage attacks upon other nations since WW2 demonstrates.
Whether China could operate on a different model is a fascinating question with global implications. Is it even possible that the nature of future Chinese hegemony might in some way be shaped by events as they unfold over coming decades and that we might have influence over?
Only, perhaps, if we consider the possibilities and take action preemptively.
Actually the estimated 80 million dead due to US interventions overseas does exceed the number of Chinese who have died due to civil internal conflicts during the 20th century.
Do you understand the difference between internal conflicts within a nation (like the US civil war) and military conflicts that a nation has gone out and started like the multiple invasions of other countries the US has engaged in over the last 100 years?
How many have died outside of Chinas territory due to Chinese interventions in other nations? Nothing like the millions that have died due to US militarist adventures outside of the US.
Quite true but you overlook the fact that @Cje95 is a US taxpayer funded apologist for US military aggression and presumably gets paid in dollars...while he continually alleges I am a CCP bot when this is demonstrably bullshit.
Yes I hold most of my liquid savings in BTC, not Yuan, or dollar.
What is absurd is that because I have pointed out the fact of Chinese economic success based on a mixed economy you immediately allege I am Chinese or somehow pro Chinese when that is simply not the case- you appear incapable of discerning the difference between acknowledging relevant facts and arguments and blind US exceptionalist or other nationalist bias.
The fact is both US and China are major nations and Chinas economy is headed to eclipse the US, but the US has to date been far more reliant upon external power projection and invasion and other interventions in the sovereignty of other nations than China has.
USA is significantly the worse in terms of sheer bullying and imperialism...at least to date.
The deaths of Chinese during Maos era were deaths inflicted upon Chinese.
USSR suffered 20 odd millions casualties in WW2 and Stalin is considered to have been responsible for millions more...but these again are domestic deaths not those as a result of external aggression upon other nations.
The list above is instances where the USA has invaded OTHER COUNTRIES.
Do you understand the not so subtle difference? ...
Because it is entirely relevant when we seek to consider the degree of external power projection of relative nations- and the historical facts strongly indicate that the USA stands out head and shoulders above all others at least since WW2 in regard to imposing its will and military aggression upon OTHER NATIONS.
You complain I have not engaged in the dialogue and then when I do you fail completely to respond to any of the facts and issues I have responded with...instead continuing to indulge in your trolling and personal attacks rather than engaging in good faith reasoned contest of ideas.
You have to be able to engage in a reasoned debate to claim that you can and do apply reason rather than the cheap alternative which you and trolls generally prefer which is to attack the messenger while leaving the message unrefuted.
Does the US government still deny its involvement with Britain in the removal of Irans elected Mossadgh government in the 1950s and the installation of the US puppet Shah?
S I L E N C E.
Does the US government still deny the CIAs involvement in the 1970s Indonesia coup where over 1 million people were murdered on the orders of the CIA and the elected Indonesian leader Sukarno was removed and a compliant US puppet was installed enabling the carve up of Indonesias considerable resources to US corporates?
S I L E N C E.
You are ignoring the fact that the substitution of supply the US has managed so far is insignificant and does not in anyway revive the US military industrial combine to a level of significant and sustainable military materiel production capability and will not for at least a decade in the very bast case scenario.
You are paid to calm the peasants and spin the narrative to prevent panic, but I am not held to such directives- I can speak the brutal truth.