What has Trump done to this country?

Fogdog said:

As long as we are making predictions, I'll make one of my own.

In a few decades, China will be coming out of the slump created by its one child policy and civil unrest due to its repressive oligarchy. India will be stifled by the rise of fascism under Modi and will experience hardship due to civil unrest. Maybe they will have adjusted by then but I'm not so sure of that.

The US is not exceptional or pure and has a hand in the corruption seen in both India and China, not proclaiming "murrica is back" or anything like that. It's just that corrupt government and endemic corruption throughout the systems of those two nations puts a drag on their economic and political well being. China will be a military threat for the next decade. They will expand their regional influence for a while but by the 2030's, their internal problems will force them to once again change their hundred year plan.

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Rottedroots said:

China is not a communist country so much as it a dictatorial authoritarian regime. By definition alone the Chinese are proving themselves to be capitalists and not communist. The rapid rise of the middle class, the upper class, the millionaires and billionaires don't seem to support any adherence to communism by the people or the state. If there is one thing China has adopted from the west it's consumerism. It's a frenzied grab for anything that new money can buy regardless of the source or impact. Don't they get National Geographic Magazine? The African colonialists of the past have been replaced by the Chinese colonialists of the present and the future. I think your right that the "pressures" put on China in the last four years pales in comparison to what they were able to accomplish while we as the rest of the world was focused on Trump. African nations that were of no interest to any country have been snatched up and indentured and whatever resources the Chinese can glean from those countries will be of a huge benefit to them. They are doing such a good job at destroying their own environment they're taking it on the road and successfully at that. I thought that was our MO but they are even better at it than us. I've no problem with them buying up our forest lands or NY sky scrapers because when push come to shove they can't take land home. If it's racist I apologize but I also have no problem with them vetting Chinese University students. Recent history has shown that a very very small minority are active members of the Chinese military bent on gathering technology and we couldn't make it any easier. I have no idea of how to rein in the Chinese so if they want to build up the Spratly islands all we can or will do is puff up and bluster. So I have to admit I was wrong and that Trump's superficial trade war and tirade against the theft of technology amounts to nothing, much less a success.

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mooray said:

We could do our part and stop trade completely, as well as stop trade with nations that trade with them, but we always want to have our cake and eat it too.

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Rottedroots said:

China is not a communist country so much as it a dictatorial authoritarian regime. By definition alone the Chinese are proving themselves to be capitalists and not communist. The rapid rise of the middle class, the upper class, the millionaires and billionaires don't seem to support any adherence to communism by the people or the state. If there is one thing China has adopted from the west it's consumerism. It's a frenzied grab for anything that new money can buy regardless of the source or impact. Don't they get National Geographic Magazine? The African colonialists of the past have been replaced by the Chinese colonialists of the present and the future. I think your right that the "pressures" put on China in the last four years pales in comparison to what they were able to accomplish while we as the rest of the world was focused on Trump. African nations that were of no interest to any country have been snatched up and indentured and whatever resources the Chinese can glean from those countries will be of a huge benefit to them. They are doing such a good job at destroying their own environment they're taking it on the road and successfully at that. I thought that was our MO but they are even better at it than us. I've no problem with them buying up our forest lands or NY sky scrapers because when push come to shove they can't take land home. If it's racist I apologize but I also have no problem with them vetting Chinese University students. Recent history has shown that a very very small minority are active members of the Chinese military bent on gathering technology and we couldn't make it any easier. I have no idea of how to rein in the Chinese so if they want to build up the Spratly islands all we can or will do is puff up and bluster. So I have to admit I was wrong and that Trump's superficial trade war and tirade against the theft of technology amounts to nothing, much less a success.

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mooray said:

We could do our part and stop trade completely, as well as stop trade with nations that trade with them, but we always want to have our cake and eat it too.

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Fogdog said:

I'd describe China's socio-economic system as mercantilist oligarchy. Definitely not communist. The country is nearly completely controlled by an oligarchy made of descendants from the founders of the CCP. That oligarchy owns a third of the wealth in China and control almost all of the economy, so it's not really capitalist. Mercantilism is a system that seeks to grow wealth through one-sided protectionist trading practices which, to me, seems to be what the Chinese government is doing.

Not racist one bit to say that the Chinese government is vile, because it is. The people of China aren't the problem, their authoritarian government is. Can't really blame the majority for their government because their system does not practice free and fair elections, nor is there a universal right to vote.

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CCGNZ said:

We are so interconnected now that a total divorce would be very painful, supply chain thrown into total chaos, not to mention the fact that the Chineese have a virtual monopoly on rare earth metals that are essential to the production of high tech components (comp.chips,cellphones,etc)ccguns

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A Foreign Policy for the American People - United States Department of State

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good morning. My fellow Americans, five weeks ago I was sworn in as your Secretary of State. My job is to represent the United States to the world, to fight for the interests and values of the American people. When President Biden asked me to serve, he made sure that I...

www.state.gov

CCGNZ said:

We are so interconnected now that a total divorce would be very painful, supply chain thrown into total chaos, not to mention the fact that the Chineese have a virtual monopoly on rare earth metals that are essential to the production of high tech components (comp.chips,cellphones,etc)ccguns

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Fogdog said:

Not racist one bit to say that the Chinese government is vile, because it is. The people of China aren't the problem, their authoritarian government is. Can't really blame the majority for their government because their system does not practice free and fair elections, nor is there a universal right to vote.

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Fogdog said:

The common denominator is the need to engage China from a position of strength.

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DIY-HP-LED said:

Hidden Brain Host on "Useful Delusions" and Why We Lie to Ourselves Everyday

Shankar Vedantam, host of the popular podcast “Hidden Brain,” has been reporting on human behavior for decades. He says that buying into false beliefs can actually be a good thing -- sometimes. He joins Hari Sreenivasan to explain why self-delusion can be a useful tool to help us through life's hardships.

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Sativied said:

If only the chinese were as thoughtful about not being racist. And yes, I mean the chinese with a broad brush, not specifically the chinese government. We’re talking about people who own cotton plantations with child slaves and have a complete disregard for human life. Especially black lives don’t matter. Not in China, and not in Africa where China is gaining control fast at the cost of human rights. I much rather be black and live in the US than in China. Befehl ist Befehl was a lame excuse from the Nazis, why should it be accepted from the chinese. There was once a time when putting millions of people into camps was good enough reason for a world war. The nr 1 religion in China IS China, they are extremely nationalistic. What would 1.3 billion Americans or even Germans today do if their government puts millions into camps where women and children are raped. They would either fight or have a mass exodus. It’a not a race thing, it‘s cultural. They believe their culture is superior and will come out on top as rulers of the universe. Chinese exceptionalism goes back way further than the American.

As for your predictions, there’s no reason to assume China or India’s progress will stop. They came from a far worse position than they’re in now. China is expected to be the nr 1 in many aspects in 2040 and 2050 still. Especially economically, and the rest just follows. From their perspective, it’s not the good guys who are sending war ships through what they consider their waters and there’s no chance China will tolerate that longer than they have to. Just as the US wouldn’t tolerate Chinese or Russians war ships threatening them. Difference with Cuba is that US allies in Asia already declined missile defense systems from the US, cause they know what’s coming. Same with Australia, already being bullied by China, they know what’s coming: a major powershift in the world.

India is expected to surpass China eventually and become the world’s leader in global employment for much of this century. They’ll also continue to be the most populous nation in the world by far. It’ll be like sliding into a different time line, where Asia is the center of the modern world, with major trading partners and allies like Brazil and Nigeria.

While it may seem laughable to some that the chinese will rule the world, there are fortunately people in the US who do see what’s coming.

"I worry that they're (China) accelerating their ambitions to supplant the United States and our leadership role in the rules-based international order ... by 2050," said Washington's top military officer in Asia-Pacific, Admiral Philip Davidson.

"Taiwan is clearly one of their ambitions before that. And I think the threat is manifest during this decade, in fact, in the next six years," he told a US Senate committee.

It sounds like a heads up the arms race will continue under Biden. “We need to produce more weapons so we can tell China what to do” (like not taking back a seceded part of the nation). Engaging from a position of weakness is never a good idea but in china that comment will be perceived as just another of the endless attempts from the west to bully the chinese into submission.

Don’t have to be a certified time traveller to know where this is heading to, anyone who ever played Risk can tell.

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