The president’s executive order also cuts future funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinians.
Interesting in that he’s being allowed to essentially completely abandon the post WW2 international law order and institutions the west has used to get their way under the guise of impartiality. He’s instead just saying why pay all this money, just use sanctions, and threats of invasion and violence and our hegemony over the international finance system to get our way instead directly without the pretenses and annoying mediating layers.
And it is paying some results. Panama has bowed, left the belt and road, is going to be subject to further pressure probably to annul or modify their agreements with China on ownership of the two ports and the overpass they’re constructing (wouldn’t be surprised the US forces them to seize such property in future and deny China any benefit from it, theft is their MO).
These are dangerous times filled with opportunity and risk.
This is what Democrat vs. Republican boils down to:
Manners vs. no manners for the world hegemon. Do we get everything we want by saying please and thank you while we have a menacing club in our hand? Or do we just smash them with the club and take what we want.
what is China’s plan if they can’t even come to the defense of the countries that build economic partnerships with them? If the US can just come in and say “no more friendship with China”, why even bother building Belt and Road? US propaganda can easily undo any good will China got from building infrastructure.
I’ve often wondered this myself. But in truth Panama is too close to the US for the Chinese to be able to do anything. I think the explanation is they’re still buying time, trying to avoid a war with the US while they continue to build productive forces and consolidate for the next stage of socialist development. Even in a world say 5 years from now where China has a much more mature navy the task of fighting the US in Panama would be incredibly painful for them. I do think they’ll need to draw a line when it comes to countries not behind the US island chain curtain of steel, for example in Asia. But it’s a big question I’ve often asked. Which is what really is to stop the US from just continuing to destabilize west Asia (middle east) to prevent the B&R through there then in concert with that doing a kind of naval blockade using island chains to enforce strangling sanctions on China’s economy and I’m not sure there is anything really.
China is just hoping they don’t have to resort to war because well the US is deranged, has used nukes in anger before, and on the back foot, just bad combinations. They hope things get bad enough that the US is forced to retreat, that BRICS rises enough the US can’t bully them effectively without hurting themselves, and that will be the path forward.
But it’s a big question mark. The century will likely be decided by the attempts of the west to disrupt and destroy the BRI over the next 5-10 years and how effective they are. At the very least to the Chinese response and that of the rest of BRICS and how long they are willing to keep taking punches before daring to throw one back out.
I fear we are going to see the limits that China’s non-intrusive strategy can be stretched to. I don’t see the west retreating unless forced back, they can’t be coerced or convinced, not while they can lash out without consequence.
At some point responsible and principled non-intervention becomes irresponsible and demoralizing passivity. If the US ramps up their unhinged brutality on the third world, more than they currently at least, and China does nothing but sit back, whom is the global south and their revolutionaries supposed to turn to for security?
China is not the USSR, I understand that. I also understand that the USSR’s foreign expenditures could be argued as one if the primary reasons for decline. However, it is also through those efforts that countries like Vietnam have survived to this day to thrive. It was the CPC and Mao’s heroism in Korea that halted complete imperialist control over the Korean peninsula.
I don’t want the 2nd cold war lost in a nuclear firestorm because the premier socialist power didn’t put its foot down against the world’s imperialist hedgemon until it’s too late.
I trust the CPC but I must admit I find it frustrating.
Yeah I feel the same. The west by this point understands China’s strategy and understands to disrupt it they can just use violence and coercion and China will blink every time as long as it happens outside their borders. That’s a weak spot. That’s one of the reasons I think why we’re seeing the shift to naked imperialism, the move away from trying to use progressive language and lofty talk of values and vague crying about security to just threats, just telling Panama they will play ball or they’ll be destroyed. It has its own limits but I’m not sure much of the world is ready or able to stand up to the US imperialist violence and regime change machine in a meaningful way yet.
Right now it seems like it’s still the right move to build up productive forces but there comes a point in the near future, probably the next 5 years where they have a decision to make and their choice there could be very key for whether anyone is willing to stand with BRICS and China or if they all fold the second the US makes a threat because China won’t do anything to help them and it’s a no-brainer that the greater benefit, the rational choice is bowing to the US. And at that point, at that moment IF China has no credibility and the US is still strong, their whole BRI, their alliances, their trade, their influence will crumble and the US will succeed in isolating them and turning up the pressure to cook them and their economy and friendship with Russia and the DPRK and Vietnam will not be enough to save their economy from the turmoil and the party’s rule will be in incredible danger at a point like that because once the economy fails, the material benefits vanish they lose the support of a lot of the people who are not shall we say ideologically committed Marxists.
Latin America is probably too far, too deep in what everyone conceptualizes as the geographically near “fair” geopolitical influence sphere of the US for China to really do much intervention there even in 10, 15 years barring US power evaporating but I hope they know to stand with Africa, with Asia, with their crucial trading partners that are more distant from US power and more critical to their global supply and sales chains.
I definitely understand and respect your concerns, and I will always applaud those that have the gumption to plan ahead for the distant future for problems that could snowball, and begin to address them.
But that all being said, you are being extremely, extremely too fatalistic and cynical. I always maintain that cynicism is closer to reality than optimism, but too much of anything is a bad thing. Cynicism can blind you just as much as optimism can.
There is no fucking way on Earth that China would lose any credibility, at least not any major or significant amount, especially compared to the U.S.'s rabid dog-bullying and aggression.
Even if China had limited credibility, which would be outright delusional and opposite-world, I wager that only a relative handful of countries would side with the rapidly-crumbling U.S. empire. It’s not the 1990’s or 2000’s anymore. China is the heroic and rational paragon of the Global South, morally, economically, militarily, supply-chain-wise and culturally.
There is even less of a chance of the DPRK, Vietnam or Russia turning it’s back on China.
Latin America, itself will almost definitely call for China’s help if necessary and if they actually ask China, I feel that in my bones. If and when the U.S. does some truly stupid and evil shit, China won’t stand by.
This isn’t to say it wouldn’t be difficult, or that the U.S. couldn’t succeed using terrorism, coups, or armed conflict or subterfuge, but Latin America has received so much benefit from China, and can finally somewhat stand up for itself. While people, groups and countries can be very selfish, I see no goddamn way that Latin America or Africa turns on China. I wager even most of Asia and probably some countries in eastern europe would also side with China.
I’m not claiming to be psychic or saying that you have no valid concerns, but because of the U.S. rapidly declining, the west itself being a paper tiger, China fucking TROUNCING the West all by itself, there is no fucking way that the U.S. or West in general is nearly as much of an actual threat as it pretends to be. And with the combined might of Iran, Russia, Vietnam, the DPRK, Venezuela, Nicaragua? Almost all relatively large socialist or anti-imperialist countries, heavy-weights in their own regions? The Russia war machine itself being more than a match for NATO? Russia needs China, more than China needs Russia. Billions and billions of people globally rely and look up to China.
There is no fucking galaxy where the U.S. wins. It’s a ridiculous, poisonous, psychotic, toxic shithole that has NONE of the strength it pretends to have.
My only major concerns are the U.S. using nuclear weapons or war/terrorism to collapse a handful of countries, but with China’s technology, and the world’s moral, social, political, economic and supply-chain and military cooperation?
It’s not a question of if socialism/China wins, in the end. It’s only a question of survival.
Thank you for pointing out my excessive pessimism. I often forget the whole “optimism of the soul” portion of the quote which is ever so important. I think my proximity to my field of study has definitely shaped my perception of Nuclear Armageddon as an ever increasing likelihood, when I ought to hold a bit more trust in its avoidance.
I should also mention that these bouts of frustration don’t deter my support for the PRC, or diminish my thoughts on the eventual victory of the people, but they are still concerns I voice from time to time due to fear of nuclear war. I’ve been particularly unenthused since the fall of Syria and am still yet to process all my greif on the matter. Though ironically enough I think it’s been improved slightly by a well-formatted scientific article concerning the core mechanics of a Pebble Bed Reactor designed at Tsinghua University I read about a week ago. It was published a couple years ago, but I was impressed by it and it’s somewhat made me feel more firm in the People’s Republic’s capabilities.
Apologies if that seems odd, or if my pessimism crossed the threshold that is acceptable.
May I ask what your field of study is?
I’m glad that your frustration doesn’t massively deter your support for the PRC.
I understand greatly how you feel. Just please always keep in mind, that you are human. Don’t beat yourself up too much. That’s a problem I have to.
For me personally, I don’t think grief can ever be fully processed. It’s just something to live with.
It’s also always reasonable to be skeptical and criticize the PRC, but they have been doing stuff like this for the better part of a century. I’m sure they know what they are doing, for the most part.
I like how you phrased your cynicism, but as with everything in life, I think it’s more about shades rather than threshholds.
I think you are being too doom-postery. You have very valid concerns though, and I always applaud those that can think ahead and be concerned about unlikely scenarios, because reality is scary, confusing, contradictory and rarely makes sense.
But please, cool your jets for your own mental wellbeing.
China isn’t mindlessly pursuing their no-interference policy, though. There is definitely a kind of logic to it, and China has admitted already that their policy is always subject to review and not set in stone. I think you are right in some of your concerns, but you are being a bit doomery.
2 things: 1. coming “to the defense” would be crossing a line on that country’s own sovereignty, or its own development/buildup of sovereignty. (China’s not interested in the soviet model, and I think this has merit because we saw how areas propped up by soviets fell as the ussr waned and then collapsed.) building infrastructure doesnt mean unilateral alliance, it’s a business transaction, albeit one that meaningfully materially strengthens the beneficiary country’s ability towards economic development and sovereignty.
2/ someone come correct me if I’ve got my understanding of how bonds work/macroeconomics/monetary policy/forex backwards but China owns a lot of US debt, and is actively shedding it. Used to be #1 foreign holder of US treasuries, now it’s #2 (#1 currently Japan). In the past China bought US bonds using its trade surplus in dollars, which would basically recycle $ to continue to develop its own manufacturing and towards growing its own middle class+its own domestic market. Now that China’s developed a pretty robust domestic market (eg doesnt need to rely on US to consume those produced goods and fuel economy), China doesn’t need to put dollars back into that machine, but it still has a trade surplus in dollars. So financing other projects like those on BRI or among BRICS with those dollars is a solution to that problem (holding onto that surplus isn’t economically sound…), and bonus points for building material foundations for dedollarization.
someone else’s analysis that’s similar to my second point, and probably has a better understanding of that economics stuff: How China recycles its huge trade surplus with EU, US into BRICS infrastructure projects, risk-free
great article, thank you!
The order also cut future funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinians. The Biden administration paused funding to UNRWA
See tankiea! There absolutely is a difference between Democrats and Republicans on UNRWA.
Democrats indefinitely pause funds while Republicans cut funds to zero
China in like 5 minutes: “China declares their continued commitment to the UNHRC”
Do nothing.
Win.
US in like 10 minutes: “UNHRC IS A PUPPET OF THE CHINEEEEEEESE CCP. If China says we must send food to protect human rights, we must send bombs to kill instead!”
Infinite “Are we the baddies?” moments
Taking the mask and smashing it with a sledgehammer moment.
He is bought and paid for by the Israelis, it’s so funny. He’ll do whatever they ask him
