That’s what Chris MacIntosh over at the International Man blog calls it, and I won’t even try to argue.
That’s quite a dramatic reversal, wouldn’t ya say? Gee, looks like maybe shutting down an entire national economy indefinitely under a false pretext might not have been such a bright idea after all. The same might be said of offering tax breaks to effectively incentivize US corporations to export all American manufacturing capacity to a hostile foreign dictatorship, too. Well, unless your real aim all along wasn’t maintaining US prosperity, security, and international influence like you claimed during election-year stump speeches, that is.
But hey, that’s all just crazy talk. Please ignore my momentary lapse into batshit-nuts conspiracy theorizing, ‘kay?
BRM Peter nutshells it for us.
If ever there was proof of the old saying that “what goes around, comes around”, it’s there. China is basically out to dominate – and, if possible, humiliate – any nation that won’t dance to its tune. That includes the United States. The map above shows that, on balance, China is doing just that. Its commercial and industrial influence now exceeds that of the USA on the world scene.
The worst thing of all, from an American perspective, is that our business leaders – our oligarchs, for want of a better word – deliberately worked towards this. They’re the ones who moved manufacturing offshore, seeking greater profits by making goods in markets with lower wage and transport costs. They built the factories that China is using today to extend its influence, basically handing to the Chinese the commercial hegemony they now exploit. America is now left holding the short stick, because we no longer have the industrial and commercial might that was the foundation for our influence abroad. We handed that to China on a plate, and the Chinese have taken full advantage. Don’t blame them for that, either – we would have done exactly the same thing if our positions were reversed.
So, when you look at the problems we’re currently encountering with a very screwed-up supply chain, consider them in the light of that map. That’s why we’re experiencing them – because three-quarters of our supply chain is out of our control, and very much in China’s control. To paraphrase President Obama, “we built that”. It’s our fault, on a national scale, for allowing our barons of commerce and industry to sell our economic prosperity out from under us for a mess of pottage. However, you’ll never get our politicians to admit that, or accept any responsibility for it. Being the finest politicians money can buy, many of them were long since bought by Chinese “contributions”. There’s plenty of evidence of that; I’ll leave you to look it up for yourselves.
There oughta be some way to see that the ProPols and their hand-in-glove corporate partners in crime pay a price for what they’ve done to us, if only we could think of what it might be.
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At least as large a factor (and probably larger) as wage and transport costs is environmental regulations. Our green lunatics wanted all that messy pollution pushed somewhere they did not have to see it, so they can pretend that it does not exist. This helps them maintain the illusion that so-called “green” policies have no economic trade offs, that they are about moral choices rather than about being poorer.
“Go green and be a Good Person(tm)” is a lot easier to sell than “Go green and cut your standard of living by 50+%.”
So Emperor Xi had a speech at the UN declaring that China will “stop building coal plants abroad.” How green, how wonderful, right? The green lunatics will hear what they want to hear and can continue pretending. But what Xi is really saying is that China wants/needs all the coal for itself and all the new coal plants it is building — no one else gets any. China needs reliable power, while other countries get unreliable green BS and skyrocketing energy costs. This will drive even more industry to be offshored to China.
Look at Europe, with energy prices increasing rapidly and shortages of natural gas before winter even truly starts. The EU is begging the Russians to send more gas, and Putin is just smiling while promising nothing. Going to be a cold winter in the EU, and they will be paying whatever price Putin demands by February. Maybe shutting down all those nuclear plants and domestic energy production wasn’t such a great idea….
“Look at Europe”
I see a bunch of smug dumb asses…
They deserve to freeze.
I think you’re right on the money regarding Xi and coal.
The EU does seem rather oblivious to potential (and actual) threats to its security. Shutting down much of its own energy capacity and relying on Russia for the natural gas it needs seems…imprudent, at best.
I have also seen some articles over the past week claiming that the AUKUS sub kerfuffle with France is proof that the EU should build up its own military rather than relying on the US for protection. Really? Gosh, seems like a certain US president talked a lot about that pretty recently, but of course the EU hated him and his mean tweets. This idea of a common EU military seems to pop up regularly every couple of years, but of course it never actually amounts to anything. A real EU military force would require spending serious money, and that just is not going to happen. The EU is too busy spending on welfare and immivaders and green boondoggles. What military the EU does have on paper is mostly not actually combat ready. Thanks to the Biden Bugout, the Taliban now has more combat-ready military hardware than the EU.
“imprudent” – You’re being kind 🙂
The EU is nothing more than an attempt at communism light. The only hope for those people is failure.
Looks like freedom to slavery in one generation.
The initial foundations of the EU wer put in place after WW2. So freedom to slavery in 2-3 generations. Not that much better than 1 generation, but more like one decently-long life time.
I had hoped that Brexit might start a serious collapse of the EU, but the UK seems to be going even nuttier than the EU on green garbage and immivasion. And no one else appears to be likely to follow the UK out, which is what needed to happen.
Yea, you’re right. I was thinking of my lifetime, which spans more than a generation…
I also had high hopes for the UK after brexit, and hoped to see further movement away by others. It seems only some of the Eastern your-uh-peein nations have any sense at all.
Nigel Farage got sandbagged by Johnson the same way Sessions and a host of others dumped on Trump as soon as they got in a position to back up their talk with some walk.
Nigel should have seen the whole thing through to the end.
If only there were some way to rectify this… *cough* 1776 *cough* militia *cough* civil disobedience *cough* Solidarity *cough* trials *cough* accountability… Wow. Sorry, had something stuck in my throat.
Here is the crux of the matter.
If money were flowing to China from the US and elsewhere their currency should have risen tremendously and the cost in US$ of their goods in the US would rise. Eventually:
Chinese Labor + Transport Costs = US Labor.
And the movement of mfg would have ended more than 20 years ago.
Plus, if demand for Labor here fell because jobs went to China then China wage rates should rise in relation to US wage rates, eliminating the advantage. Eventually:
Chinese Labor + Transport Costs = US Labor.
The two forces acting together in a Free Market would have ended the China advantage in the 90s and mfg would not move to China any more.
What DID happen was that China fixes its currency at a devalued rate and fixes its local labor markets to keep wages low. No Unions allowed. Workers ask for more money end up being sent far away, or beaten and killed.
The US politicians liked this because it meant China was going to use its US$ it accumulated manipulating its currency into US Treasury and other US$.
The result is a giant Debt Bubble globally.
Looks like China’s biggest real estate company, China Evergrande, is on the edge of failure, but it will probably be bailed out.
Just delaying the inevitable.
I don’t think most people in this country understand just what has been done to them, that the CCP has been aided by their own government in the destruction of this country, and that was done purposely.
Evergrande will get bailed out but the commies will probably try to hide it.