I don’t think evil (or any other moral judgement) is a good measure. If you divide the world into three groups, pro west, pro east and neutral ( non-aligned movement during the cold war) you will see that a lot of the neutral countries of the world see USA/Europe as being at least as bad as China/Russia especially if they were colonies to begin with. For the neutral countries the question is more can BRICS help us more than who is good or evil.
As we speak most of Africa/Asia doesn’t want anything to do with the Ukrainian conflict because the USA meddled in Ukraine to remove the Pro-Russian govt in early 2014 so USA is the aggressor. To a lot, just like USA doesn’t want the military of other countries in Cuba, why should Russia want NATO on its border? Additionally as far as the rest of the world is concerned the cold war was over till the USA started the nonsense again by meddling in Ukraine. It’s really funny that the Obama govt caused the nonsense after campaigning on an anti-war platform. A lot of the rest of the world can make a strong argument that the greatest threat to world peace and stability in the last 2 decades is the USA given Iraq ( and ISIS aftermath), Afghanistan and now Ukraine on top of it’s economic recklessness. If a trade war comes out of these tariff things it will just be another example of USA mischief.
I went to Afghanistan a few times and the question I was asked a lot by taxi drivers was ‘We have never seen those twin towers but are they worth more than our country?’. The common man there doesn’t understand why the USA army went there and if they do they don’t think it was justified because Afghanistan had nothing to do with the twin towers thing. Can you imagine how it looks when Osama is found in Pakistan? It looks like USA lied again like it did with the WMD thing.
I don’t care who is “pro-west”. I don’t think we should be doing business with regimes, dictatorships, communists, etc.
Apparently the logic behind trade deals with China is that increased economic cooperation would make China move towards democracy. That was obviously a false assumption. Now you have companies like Apple completely dependent on China and they refuse to acknowledge all kinds of questionable labor practices.
You are ignoring that China has two large sets of problems:
Its property sector is basically imploding (this is having serious impacts on employment and demand, which has led to deflation)
Its demographics are terrible, and this will impact their ability to be a nuisance long-term.
They can still cause problems (militarily and economically) but within the constraints of their domestic limitations.
The one thing the west really needs to worry about is a global re-alignment towards a Russia-China-India axis from a global perspective. This is one of the reasons why the US supporting Israel to the extent that it is doing is a problem. It has nudged the world in that direction.
You have to take the long view when it comes to these things.
for native chinese, yes. will they be open to immigration somewhow to bridge the gap for numbers needed? likely hard given how the regime is run, but possible (and more if needed)
This thread is there because the USA is threatening it’s allies with economic warfare, the same treatment it gives its enemies. Let that sink in for a bit.
Maybe you see the USA as an ally but it may not be reciprocating.
Can immigration help China? Their projected population in 2100 is going to be around 525 million. Down almost a billion people from their current population. I’m not sure there are enough immigrants available.
China has been investing a lot on the African continent from the 60s and 70s. That’s why it controls a lot of the rare metals like lithium etc. it may go through a phase like the USA where it does meta-capitalism and moves industries to other places.
Questionable labour practices are not unique to China. Amazon is an example of a huge US company with them in the US. A lot of companies that engage in union busting too. Right now we are in a phase where DEI/ Climate, social or equity goals are being rolled back. The GOP doesn’t like a minimum wage. The list is long.
Personally those labour practices shouldn’t matter if DEI/climate , social or equity goals don’t matter. Just maximise profit and move on.
Dominate is the operative word. The biggest lithium mine in Australia and the world is partially owned by a Chinese company. Whilst the two US political parties war over transgender toilets China is implementing a plan it has had from the time it saw the USA oil reserve but for all minerals. After the 2009 quantitative easing China doesn’t put new money in USA treasury bills. It invests globally primarily in mining of energy minerals and infrastructure.
China has 8% of the global lithium reserves and 72% of the world’s refining capacity as of 2022. Now, the country is fighting its mineral cold war by investing heavily in African countries. Already dominating the processing capacities for lithium used in the lithium-ion batteries for EVs, China is now taking control of mines in other countries by direct investment or ownership of subsidiaries.
China dominates each step in the production of a lithium-ion battery, a key component in EVs. EVs use six times more rare minerals than conventional cars because of their batteries. Currently, China, either by domestic mining or acquiring stakes in mining companies globally, controls 41% of the world’s cobalt and most of the mining of lithium. Approximately 67% of global lithium supply is processed by China, along with 73% of cobalt, 70% of graphite and 95% of manganese, all critical minerals for green technologies.
ETA: In Africa China operates the China-Africa Development bank which has since supplanted the bretton woods institutions.
This is where it dominates, not the supply of raw lithium. Both lithium refining and silica refining (for solar panels). Rare earths as well. Progress is being made on alternative (plentiful) materials for immobile storage cells (sodium, as well as other types like flow batteries), and LiFeP cells are low (0?) rare earth mobile alternatives with marginally less efficiency than NMC cells. The US has the mineral reserves to make enough Li ion batteries for more than a decade’s worth of EV buildout, but only just getting started on the manufacturing capacity.
My apologies to NFL fans but you are going to get anti-tariff ads on NFL telecasts telling you how much you need Ontario.
The ad emphasizes that, if Ontario were a country, it would be the U.S.'s third-largest trading partner and that the province is the top export destination for 17 states.
I would call Trump’s bluff on oil. If the US oil industry doesn’t dissuade him then consumers will when gas prices go up. Some US refineries are geared to refine only heavy crude and don’t have an alternative source to Canada and Mexico.
“My goal will be to cut your energy costs in half within 12 months after taking office,” former President Donald Trump said in a speech in Michigan last Thursday. “We can do that.”
It’s weird. USA leads the world in oil production now. Thanks to fracking. But the cruel twist is that the overwhelming amount of refining capacity in USA is engineered for sweet crude. So the USA actually exports its fracking bonanza to Europe, while needing the Canadian sweet to operate their refineries. You can bank on the US refineries not going down silently.