On the contrary. The world is a different place since last October. Saudi Arabia & Iran peace deal brokered by China.
All authoritarian regimes, not surprising.
Countries start trading in their currency or CNY.
Yes, let's look at who. India, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Russia, China. Note that Brazil was also the only other country alongside Russia and China to try to get a Russia-led fourth investigation into the NordStream 2 incident, so they're probably being actively bribed by Russia and China. Look for China to try to install a military base there, too.
Out of all of those, India is really the only one that's surprising or potentially concerning. But India has been moving in a more autocratic direction lately, which is also concerning. If you get to the point where half the world is under authoritarian regimes, that's bad news for democracy, and that's ultimately bad for everyone who believes in individual rights.
The whole NATO (let alone US) cannot keep up with the war of attrition in Ukraine.
NATO isn't directly fighting in Ukraine, they're only providing weapons and training. And last I saw, former superpower Russia has utterly failed to meet their strategic objectives there, and was slowly losing ground during the current counteroffensive.
RFK is drawing 15-20% of Democrats.
RFK Jr. is polling at 15-20% because of name recognition and general distaste for Biden. As soon as people start hearing about RFK Jr.'s absolutely bonkers positions on vaccines and other issues those numbers will drop to the low single digits.
China leaning parties gain ground in Taiwan.
And how much of that is due to direct propaganda efforts pushed by the PRC? Keep dreaming, but Taiwan isn't going to just roll over and forfeit everything they've built since the revolution.
All the above plus the fact that we are 18 months before US elections has made, in my opinion, Biden Administration to want to ease it with China.
Yes, even with years of tariffs pushing a lot of manufacturing out of China and into India, Vietnam, and elsewhere, we are still too tightly coupled with China economically to keep them at arm's length. We have to have a functional diplomatic relationship with them, but strategically we should be looking to disengage economically as much as we reasonably can, and then tie reengagement to human rights advances. But that would require cooperation among all the western democracies to do so, and Europe is less concerned about China at the moment, especially with the economic hardship caused by the sanctions against Russia.
Honestly, the U.S. should be moving as much manufacturing from China to Mexico as possible. There are serious corruption issues in Mexico that would need to be addressed, but basing most of our lower-cost manufacturing there would reduce transportation costs, time zone problems, and IP theft, and it would help to lift Mexico's economy, which would ease immigration issues at the U.S./Mexican border. And it would make Mexico less susceptible to China's attempts at bribery.
I don’t think US can be beaten in a full-blown open conflict by Russia or China alone. But when/if they‘ll send troops on the ground, I doubt that they could beat Russians in a war of attrition in Ukraine.
If the Ukrainians are able to hold their own against Russia with western weapons, why do you think a highly trained and larger force with even more advanced weaponry would be
less successful?
Not that it would come to that -- we've been pretty clear that we're not going to put troops on the ground there. But we need to be ready in case Putin goes nuts and lets the conflict spill over into neighboring countries, especially those who are NATO members, due to Article 5.
I’ve been many times in HK. HK is doing well. It’s not that they ever had democracy and they lost it. Many pro PRC riots had happen under the British and then the Colonial forces were shooting and killing people. Probably hundreds of people were killed during anti-British protests. Hundreds. Killed.
Are you going to claim that Hong Kongers are as free today as they were under British control? That the national security law and the violation of the timeline agreed to in the Sino-British Joint Declaration haven't had a chilling effect on the people compared to pre-1997 HK?
You are missing the point. US went on great lengths and worked for months for this Blinken visit. They sent CIA head to prepare the ground then Blinken took a 10 hours beating by the Chinese. No matter what we assume, it’s certain that they had serious reasons to do that.
And after all this months preparation plus lecture and beating Blinken took in Beijing, next day Biden calls Xi a dictator. And note, this is not the usual Biden dementia thing, it’s been it the US official read outs. Which makes it even worse. Everything that has been achieved no matter small during the Blinken visit is now been destroyed. Such an unhinged behavior.
Our job is not to kiss Xi's ass and boost his ego. If he is so fragile that he can't handle being called exactly what he is (a dictator) or what he resembles (Winnie The Pooh), then that's
his problem.
Also, China needs to engage with the U.S. at least as much as the U.S. needs to engage with China. Zero COVID and tariffs have seriously beaten up China's economy, which is
struggling to hit already slow growth targets. A lot of people are having trouble finding jobs, there's a gigantic real estate bubble waiting to burst, and China is heavily reliant on food importation. Granted,
they've replaced a fair number of U.S. food imports with Brazilian imports (one way in which they're buying Brazil's support on the world stage), and they've taken the asinine step of
having some city parks repurposed into basically unusable farmland, but at the end of the day they need to engage with us, just as we need to engage with them.
As explained you a few posts above this is a grammar thing, we always put the adjective then the party then the country. It’s rude to say American United States, or German Communist Party. And besides, when talking officially we should follow the official naming protocol.
Tell that to
Al Jazeera,
BBC News, and everyone else in the English-language media, then. And Chinese immigrant transplants. Clearly the rest of the world did not get the memo.
I understand US‘ concerns but let remind you that we are on the brink of nuclear war now because they refused to acknowledge and accept Russian concerns about Ukraine. And they keep pushing the escalation ladder.
Jesus, let me know when your talk show debuts on RT. Ukraine gave up their nukes in exchange for their independence from the former Soviet Union. They didn't have any foreign military bases or NATO troops on their land that I'm aware of. Russia's concerns weren't based on anything that had actually happened yet, but they chose to proactively invade the country multiple times anyway. How on earth is this not Russia's own fault?
And I don’t agree that this will never happen. During the 60s people in power were hinged and realistic in both sides. What grounds US have to refuse a base in Cuba after all the color Revolutions, NATO expansion, military presence in South China Sea and war in Ukraine?
Because it's an unacceptable national security threat, and if Xi tests us, he'll either learn the same humbling lesson Khrushchev did, or we'll all be fucked thanks to his ego.
Just check statements from US officials they are downplaying and even recognizing the “right” of China to have a base in Cuba as a fair play.
Source?
So don’t bet that it won’t happen, we are not in the 60s.
You are so very wrong, and if Xi's thinking is as off-base as yours is about the U.S., then we're all in for a world of shit.
